Way of the Samurai: Origins
by Lily Hanson
Summary: How did the Samurai get their start? What was it like meeting their teammates for the first time? Were they all truly ready for their responsibilities?
1. The Young Samurai

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers Samurai_

_Author's Note: I decided to do this separately from my other story, simply because it's the origin of the Samurai Rangers and it's its own story and deserves its own space. I will try to balance this with Way of the Samurai: The Battle Continues. For now, enjoy this story!_

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><p>A young boy, about six or seven years old, was being carried from the pool to the car by his father. He clung on tightly to his father's neck, hugging him warmly. He was exhausted after his long day at the pool and very happy to see his father was finally home after being away for nearly a year. His mother had told him that his father needed to leave to protect the world, but that didn't interest the young boy. He was just happy to have his father home and with him.<p>

"Are you going to train me, daddy?" the young boy looked up at his father before resting his head on his father's shoulder and letting out a big yawn.

"Yes," the older man nodded his head and hugged his son. "Tomorrow we start your training."

"Mama thinks I'll be good enough to make it to the 'lympics," little Kevin told his father. "I want to be the fastest swimmer there ever was and mama said you could train me."

"You will amount to greatness, son," the man promised the young boy. Kevin smiled as he drifted off to sleep, letting his exhaust finally overpower him.

A woman approached the man and the boy, a slightly troubled look on her face.

"Tomorrow?" she asked the man as she placed a hand on the boy's back. "You're going to start training tomorrow? But you just got back."

"Our red Ranger died in battle," the man told his wife. "The Nighlok are going to be even stronger in a few years and I want to make sure Kevin gets the best training possible before we are forced to send him away."

The woman nodded her head sadly before wrapping her arms around her husband's waist to hug him. It had been so long since she had seen or heard from him and every day she had been worried he would never come home. Now that she had him back, she had hoped she could live a normal life for a few years before her husband began training her son for his future.

As she hugged her husband she looked at her sleeping son in his arms. She smiled at him and kissed his cheek.

"You'll be an amazing Samurai, Kevin," she whispered. "Just like your father."

-Samurai-

"Michael, come on!"

A young boy was mad at his father and refused to do as the older man said. He stood defiantly with his arms crossed over his chest, his cheeks puffed and a hateful glare in his eyes.

"You promised you wouldn't miss my birthday, daddy," the young boy said.

"Michael, I'm sorry," the man sighed and held out an empty roll of wrapping paper so he could train his son. Michael was far from ready to train with a sword, or even a wooden katana, so the man opted to use something a little less dangerous while the young boy learned to practice his stance and techniques. "I told you about the mean Master Xandred and his army of Nighlok monsters. It's their fault I missed your birthday."

Michael glared at his father before he was suddenly lifted from behind as a woman picked him up and held him in his arms. Michael smiled at his mother and hugged her.

"Michael," his mother chuckled, "If daddy could have been home on time he would have. He got you a big present to make up for it, though."

Suddenly there was a light in Michael's eyes, "He did?"

His mother nodded and set him down, "It's in the living room, sweetie. Go find it."

Michael dropped his roll of wrapping paper and bolted inside the house to find his birthday present from his father while his parents watched him run off.

"He needs to train," his father told his mother as she walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him. "He needs to train. He needs to learn how to fight."

"I remember a young man once telling me he would train five days a week, from dawn to dusk an on weekends he would practice his symbol powers. Do you know what happened to that young man?"

"What?"

The woman poked her husband in the ribs, "Monday morning he would give up and roughhouse with his son in the backyard. And instead of practicing his symbol power, he would sit with his son all weekend and make up silly little comic books."

And because I goofed off, I nearly killed my team several times in our fight against Master X," Michael's father sighed. "I won't let my son be a screw up like me. He's not going to let his team down and maybe, next time, they'll all come out alive."

"He's only five. You still have years to train him."

-Samurai-

Mia hugged her grandmother's legs as she looked up at her parents, a mixture of fear and hatred in her eyes.

"Mia, sweetheart," her mother knelt down before her, "We're home, baby. You can come home with us."

"No!" Mia shouted, shaking her head from side to side before burying her face in her grandmother's legs. "I hate you for leaving!"

"Mia…"

"I tried to explain it to her," her grandmother said as she lifted Mia into her arms and hugged her, "She hasn't changed her mind. She's been like this since the day you both left."

"Mia, we're sorry," her father tried to take her from her grandmother but Mia bit his hand. He pulled away and tried not to get angry.

"Mia, you need to come with us," her mother said. "Now it's my turn to train you, just like your grandmother trained me. It's your destiny to be the pink Ranger."

"No!" Mia shouted. "You're not going to train me! Sobo will train me!"

"Mia…"

"No!"

"Maybe if you give her another day," Mia's grandmother suggested to the parents. "She's still pretty upset about the two of you leaving. Moving back home will be another big change for her and I don't think she's ready."

"We'll come back tomorrow, okay Mia?" her father promised but Mia didn't answer. He leaned forward and kissed her cheek before her mother did the same. As they grabbed their things to head back home after being away for almost a full year, Mia's mother turned back to her daughter and her own mother and held out the Turtle Folding Zord.

"It's yours now, Mia," she said. Mia took the circular device and stared at it.

"Sobo trains me now," she glared at her mother. "You left!"

Her mother didn't know what to say. She kissed her daughter again before leaving with her husband, promising they would be back to see Mia again the next day.

Mia looked up at her grandmother once her parents were gone. She held the turtle Zord in her hands.

"You can train me, right?" she asked. Her grandmother sighed.

"It really should be your mother…"

"I want it to be you," Mia insisted. "I want to stay with you, Sobo."

Her grandmother nodded her head, "I will train you today."

Mia smiled and looked down at the Folding Zord, "How do you open this thing?"

"It will open for you when it's ready to have you as its mistress," her grandmother promised. "For now, we'll start with the basics."

-Samurai-

"Wena, that mama?"

Serena nodded to her little sister Emily as she helped the two year old get into her pyjamas and ready for bed. Their mother had only just gotten home in the late afternoon after being away for nearly a year to complete her duties as a Samurai Ranger.

"Yeah, that's mom," she said. "You remember all the stories daddy and I told you?" Emily had been very young with their mother had to leave and their mother risked being forgotten about by her youngest daughter due to Emily's age and limited memory. In order to make sure Emily would never forget her mother, Serena and Jack told Emily as many stories as they could about her mother to let her know that one day she would be coming back and that way she wouldn't be a total stranger to Emily when she finally did come home.

"She come back?" Emily asked.

"Yeah," Serena smiled. "She's come back, and she's staying for good."

"What that?" Emily pointed to the Ape Folding Zord around Serena's neck. Serena looked down, a slight grin on her face. She was happy the Ape Zord was back in her possession. She hadn't been able to train with it while her mother was away, but that that it was back, she could finally work on getting it to open up and accept her as its Mistress.

Serena held the Zord in her hand to show Emily, "This is now my Ape," she said. "The Ape really liked you. It would always open for you. You used to play with it all the time when you were a baby."

"Before mama gone?"

"Yeah, before mama left," Serena said. "Now she's giving it to me."

"Why?"

"Because one day I'm going to use it to save the world just like mommy."

"You leave?"

"Not for a very long time," Serena promised. "You'll be so big by then, you'll have forgotten all about me."

"Never!" Emily shook her head and threw herself into her sister's arms. "Love you."

"I love you too," Serena lifted Emily up and carried her to her bed. As she laid her sister down, Emily reached for the Folding Zord and grabbed it to get a closer look. Serena laughed as she pulled. "Emily, let go."

"Me see!" Emily smiled and tried to remove the Zord from around her sister's neck. Serena chuckled and helped her little sister. She took off the Zord and placed it in Emily's hand. Just then, the Ape burst to life, transforming right in front of their eyes. Serena huffed. The Ape had always preferred Emily over her. It never seemed to want to open up for Serena, but would just right into its active state for Emily. Even back when her mother was still the Ape's mistress, it seemed to react best to Emily's touch.

Serena left the Ape with her little sister and kissed her forehead before letting her go to sleep. She closed the door and took a few steps down the hallway before nearly running into her mother.

"How is she?" her mother asked.

"She was easy tonight," Serena answered. "Normally she's bouncing off the walls and it takes both me and daddy to wrestle her into bed."

Her mother smiled and then looked at Serena. She pulled her eldest daughter into a big hug.

"I missed you so much."

"I missed you too," Serena said. As they pulled apart, her mother noticed she wasn't wearing the Ape Zord.

"Where's the Ape?" she asked. "You'll need it for when we start training tomorrow. Now that I'll officially be passing on my powers to you, you might finally be able to activate it."

Serena looked at the bedroom door and gulped before turning back to her mother and nodding her head slowly.

"Mom, I…"

"I know I just got back, but those Nighlok are scary creatures. Powerful too. I'm sure you'll be able to handle them when the times comes, but you'll need to be very well prepared. The sooner we start training, the better off you'll be."

"Were they really that dangerous?" Serena asked her mother.

"I'm not going to lie to you, sweetheart," her mother placed her hands on her shoulder, "The Nighlok are dangerous. Master Xandred's even worse. But by the time your training's done, you'll be ready to handle them. And you'll have a team waiting to help you. Your leader, the red Ranger, is already promising to be a great Samurai."

"We better get started then," Serena quickly glanced at the bedroom door and then smiled up at her mother. "I'll figure out a way to activate that Ape."

"You're going to have to," her mother chuckled. "It'll take time, but you'll get there."


	2. Preparing For The Call

At the age of twenty-one, Kevin has his entire life figured out. He trained daily for his Samurai responsibilities, as well as for his dreams. The Olympics weren't that far away anymore and he was sure to qualify this time if he kept to his schedule.

He knew he was supposed to one day become a Samurai Ranger, but he hadn't yet gotten the call. He was starting to think the day would never come. Maybe the former red Ranger had succeeded with the sealing symbol. Maybe the Nighlok had given up. Still, even with his doubts, he continued to train. It helped him keep in shape for swimming and it helped him feel connected to the water, his element, as if that boosted his chance of being the best swimmer he would possibly be.

He swam and swam until he touched the wall and pulled his head out of the water. He felt his hand touching something that didn't feel like it belonged in a pool and looked up to see his father.

"Son," his father usually stood by the pool to help him train. He would tell him what he needed to improve and how to be better. He helped Kevin with his dream of swimming, but today, he seemed to be here for a different reason.

"Dad?" Kevin pulled himself from the pool and removed his goggles and cap. He walked over to the towel and began to dry himself off while his father spoke.

"I wanted to wish you good luck," this was nothing new; his father had always supported him, "for your final meet."

"Final meet?" Kevin turned to look at his father.

"Ji, the Mentor to your red Ranger, told me the time is near," Kevin felt his stomach turning slightly as his father presented him with his dragon Zord. It couldn't have been time to be a Samurai. He had a swimming meet coming up and he was going to qualify for the Olympics. Still, Kevin took the Zord from his father's hand. "You have always trained with discipline and honour, knowing that it is your destiny to join the Power Rangers."

"Proudly," Kevin nodded his head. It wasn't that he didn't like his duties as a Samurai, they just seemed to have extremely bad timing.

"Now, you must stand united with them, no matter how great the challenge," his father continued. "You will not be alone. There are others who also await the call."

Kevin clutched his Zord in his hand as he nodded to his father again. "I won't let you down."

"I know you won't," his father placed a hand on his shoulder and then gestured to the pool, "Now, let's make sure you win your final swim meet. We can't have you leaving with a loss, can we?"

Kevin set his towel down and the Dragon Zord before he jumped back into the water to show his father how he had been practicing all day. He couldn't believe the time to be a Samurai had come now, and truth be told, he didn't want to go, but he knew it was important. The fate of the entire world rested in his hands and he needed to live up to his responsibilities as the blue Ranger. There was nothing more important that the safety of the planet.

-Samurai-

Mia loved to work with children. There was something about their innocence and their spirit that made her want to get up and go to work every day, no matter how she was feeling. While most of the other workers at the day-care found it extremely annoying with the kids would latch onto their hands, arms, legs and clothes, Mia loved it. She could sit and play with the children found hours and always knew exactly how to get them to wind down for their nap, no matter how excited their got.

And she always returned home to her grandmother with a smile on her face. There was never a bad day when she had to go to work. Even though it was only a part-time job, something for her to do when she wasn't training to be the pink Ranger, it was something she considered doing for the rest of her life.

As she stepped inside the house she noticed it was silent. Normally he grandmother was in the kitchen coming up with a new recipe for dinner, but today it sounded like there was no one home. Worried for the elderly lady, Mia set her bag down.

"Sobo?" she called, hoping to hear a response.

"In here, Mia," she heard from the living room and followed her grandmother's voice. She walked into the living room and saw her grandmother was sitting on the couch, playing with the turtle Zord as it sat on the coffee table. When the turtle saw Mia, it flew over to her, folding up and landing in her hand.

"What's going on?" Mia asked. She rarely ever saw her grandmother bonding with the turtle unless they were in training, and even then, Mia was usually the one to bond with the animal.

"The time is near," her grandmother answered. "I was simply saying goodbye to an old friend."

"You mean…?"

"Any day now you will be called into battle," her grandmother told her. "When that happens, you will need to drop all of your current responsibilities."

"But the kids…"

"Being a Samurai is more important that playing with the children."

Mia lowered her head and looked at her turtle. She knew her grandmother was right. If she didn't become a Samurai she was putting the whole world in danger, the children especially.

"I never thought this day would come," she admitted to her grandmother. "It's been so long since…"

"Would you like to invite your parents over for a goodbye dinner? Once you are gone, there will be no contact. I cannot communicate with you and you will not be allowed to talk with me or your parents."

"Call them," Mia nodded and took a seat on the couch. "How long do you think I'll be gone for?"

"Back in my day, I was gone for five years. My mother spent three fighting the Nighlok. Your mother was gone for one. It really depends on the team you're with and the strength of the Nighlok you are facing."

"Hopefully they're ready," Mia felt slightly sick. She was nervous about leaving soon. She knew it was important, but she didn't think she was really ready to be a Samurai. She had the entire world's fate resting on her shoulders. A simple slip up and humanity could be wiped off the face of the planet.

"I'm sure they are," her grandmother smiled.

-Samurai-

"Again, Michael?"

Mike looked to his father with a frown, "What? It's my money?"

"Forty dollars? You spent forty dollars at the arcade? What do you have to show for it? Nothing!"

"Dude, high school in Bear Chaser! Tomorrow I'm going to beat it! I'm a legend!"

"Don't call me dude," his father rubbed his forehead in frustration. "Mike, you seriously need to smarten up! When you dropped out of school I thought you would focus on your training! Do you not remember the stories I told you?"

"Dad, I'm ready, I know I am! I could kick anyone's ass! None of the jocks at school used to mess with me because they knew I was the champ!"

Mike kicked and punched the air to prove his point and then smiled at his father, "I'm ready, dad."

"Are you ready now?" his father presented him with the Bear Folding Zord. "Any day now you will be called by Mentor Ji and you will have to fight the Nighlok. It's serious business, Mike. They won't hold back."

"I've got this, dad."

"You can't let your team down like I did."

"Dad, so you screwed up a few times, big deal? Nothing happened."

"The red Ranger died!"

"And I'm not going to let that happen."

"You need to understand this isn't some video game."

"Dad…"

"Lives are at stake, Michael. Innocent lives, as well as the lives of your teammates. If you aren't ready you'll be putting them all in danger."

"Trust me, dad. They'll all be admiring my skills when I show up and they'll be begging me for private lessons."

"You're already at the disadvantage," his father shook his head. "The other Samurai have at least a couple of years on you. Your red Ranger has been training since he could walk. The blue and pink Rangers have likely been training non-stop for fifteen years. The yellow Ranger's been in training for longer."

"They don't have natural talent," Mike smirked. "Besides, I'm sure they aren't that great."

"You better hope they are," his father told him. "Because they will be your team. You will protect them and they will protect you."

"I'm ready for this," Mike nodded his head. "I promise, dad, I won't let you down."

"Then how about one final lesson with your old man before you leave?"

"Actually," Mike held out his hand, "can I borrow some money? Like I said, tomorrow I'm going to beat my high school and I'll be a legend at the arcade."

"But…"

Mike reached into his father's pocket, where he knew there was always money and smiled.

"Thanks dad! I'll make you proud!"

His father watched his run off with a loud groan until he felt two arms wrapping around his shoulders from behind. He turned around and saw his wife.

"Like father, like son."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

"He's a lot more responsible than you think. Just give him a chance. He makes mistakes, but he learns from them."

"I just hope he's as skilled as he thinks he is."

"I'm sure he is."

-Samurai-

Emily held out her sister's medication and a glass of water. Serena was very sick, and had been for years. Her condition had started out pretty serious and had only gotten worse from there. Only a year ago the doctor had told her that her illness was going to kill her, it was only a matter of time.

When Serena first showed signs of illness, her mother began to worry and had started training Emily. Once it was clear that things were getting worse, her mother had to make a difficult call. Until Serena showed signs of improvement, Emily was going to take over the role as yellow Ranger. She was young and painfully behind in her training, but she would be a much better Ranger than her sister, who at times could barely breathe without help from a machine.

As soon as the doctor had announced Serena's illness would kill her, the decision was final. Emily was going to be the yellow Ranger when the time came. There was no way they would send off a sick and dying Samurai to be a Ranger, even if she was the firstborn and this was her birthright.

As Emily held out the medicine, the only thing keeping Serena going for this long, she noticed her sister seemed upset.

"Serena, please, you have to take these," it wasn't uncommon for Serena to fall into depression now that she was ill, and every once in a while it was difficult to persuade Serena to take her medication and follow her doctor's orders. No one in her family could blame her. They were only delaying the inevitable, and asking her to suffer longer was a selfish thing to do, but they couldn't bear to lose her so young.

"Mom heard from Ji," Serena whispered. Emily set the water and the medicine down by Serena's night table and took a seat by her bed.

"Why didn't she come talk to me?"

"She probably will," Serena said.

"Do I need to leave?"

"Not right now," Serena shook her head, "but you should start packing."

A tear dripped down Serena's cheek and she turned away from her sister. She couldn't bring herself to look at Emily, knowing the danger she had put her sister in by getting sick. She was already going to die, but she couldn't let the same thing happen to Emily.

"Serena, are you crying?" Emily touched her sister's hand. She could feel Serena trembling slightly so she squeezed, offering comfort. "I'm going to be fine. Mom trained me well."

"I'm still going to worry."

"You're going to worry?" Emily asked. "I'll have a Ranger suit, a sword and a team protecting me. You're the one who's…"

Emily trailed off and pulled her hand away from her sister, "I'm going to come home. And you're going to be waiting for me, right?"

"Of course," Serena nodded. "I'm not leaving you, Emy. Not like this. You go save the world; I'll be waiting for you once you've won."

Emily smiled and crawled up on her sister's bed. She laid down next to her sister and wrapped herself in Serena's arm. Her parents usually discouraged her from doing this but Serena and Emily both ignored them and did this whenever they could.

Emily reached over, picking up the pills and the water and handed them to her sister, "Please, Serena."

Her sister took her medication and then kissed Emily on the forehead.

"I wish you didn't have to take my place," she said.

"I'll make you proud. I promise."


	3. Assembled

After his talk with his father, Mike carried the bear Zord around with him everywhere. He understood he could be called upon at any moment, and when he was he would have to leave right away. There would be no time to say goodbye and gather up his things. Fortunately, he did not need to bring much with him. He carried around a bag of video games and comic books, but that was about it.

He was scheduled to meet his friends Matthew and Reese at the arcade after lunch, but for now he was going to enjoy the hamburger he had bought from his favourite place in town. He was nothing compared to pizza, his favourite food (even over ice-cream and candy), but this little diner knew how to make the best burgers Mike had ever tasted.

He walked proudly away from the diner and towards the arcade. Today was going to be the day he achieved the ultimate high score on the Bear Crasher game at the arcade and he made himself a legend. His friends would be so jealous, but at the same time, very supportive, and the other people in the arcade were going to worship him and his talents. Mike never really felt like he was good at anything. School had been a major challenge for him and he didn't like doing anything except playing video games. He was confident in his ability with a sword, but the way of the Samurai didn't interest him as much in real life as it did in the virtual world.

Just as he was about to take a bite out of his hamburger he felt something rip the burger right out of his hands, just like his mother used to do when she decided he had had enough to eat and the slice of pizza in his hand would push him over the edge. He furrowed his brow curiously as he looked at the empty napkin in his hand and wondered where his burger could have gone. He looked around to see if any punks had stolen it and then spotted it on an arrow that had planted itself in the ground.

"Stupid archers," he muttered to himself as he plucked the arrow from the dirt and went to remove his burger, "You could have killed me you dumbass!"

As he pulled his burger free he noticed there was a note attached to the arrow and the only message that was written was the Samurai Symbol. He recognised it from when his father had drilled that symbol into his head as a boy. It meant it was his time to take up his responsibilities as the green Ranger and meet up with his team.

He pulled out the bear Zord from his pocket and looked at it with pride. He was ready to go, but at the same time he didn't want to leave. He could see the arcade just around the block and knew his friends were waiting.

"It'll be no problem," he said to himself as he made sure his backpack was still on his shoulders. "I'll be back before they even know I'm missing. No Nighlok is a match for me."

With that, he turned around and started to run. He remembered his father telling him the Shiba House was in the forest just outside town and he knew he could make it quickly on foot.

-Samurai-

Mia couldn't bring herself to tell the kids she was going to leave as they spun around in a circle and danced outside. They looked up to her and were always excited when she was around, but she knew her Samurai duties were important and she was going to be called upon at any moment. It was for that reason she had to give in her two-weeks notice at the daycare. She wasn't sure she would be able to work out the full two weeks. As soon as she got her call she was going to have to take off, but the more warning she could give her employer the better.

She had her bag packed and ready to go inside the daycare, in case she got her call today. She wouldn't be able to say goodbye to her family or friends, but she had already taken care of that. When her grandmother got the call from Mentor Ji she had assembled her family together so they could say goodbye then. She was ready to leave, though she didn't want to.

Her turtle Zord sat in her pocket, waiting with her for the call to finally go back into action. As a boy tugged on her sweater, she could see her folding Zord and she sighed.

Suddenly, something moving in the distance caught her eye and she noticed a pink arrow was attached to the wooden pole in the yard. She frowned, realising the arrow could have easily struck one of the kids, but she was thankful it hadn't.

"Just a minute, kids," she told the youngster, letting go of their hands to pull the arrow out. She knew this meant she had to leave. She looked back at the yard full of kids and sighed before racing inside.

"Mia?" a little girl called as Mia came back out with her backpack, "Where are you going?"

"I have something important I need to do," Mia told the little girl. "I have to go."

"Are you coming back?"

Mia couldn't make a promise she knew she couldn't keep. There was a chance she never came home if the Nighlok proved to be too much to handle.

"Be good okay?" she promised as the kids gathered around her. "I'll try to come back, but it won't be for a very long time."

"We'll miss you," another little girl took her hand. Mia nodded.

"I'll miss you too, but this is really important, okay?" she said and pulled out her phone. "I wouldn't leave if it wasn't."

She let go of the kids and raced off the daycare property. When she was on the other side of the fence she pulled out her turtle Zord. She didn't know where the Shiba House was but the turtle would guide her. The little creature came to life and floated up into the air before racing off, Mia on its trail.

-Samurai-

While Serena slept soundly inside the house, Emily was sitting on the steps outside playing her flute. It was hard for her, knowing she was going to have to leave her sick sister and break all contact. Serena had promised she would be waiting for Emily but Emily knew that Serena didn't have much choice in the matter. Every moment with her sister felt like it could be the last and when it all started to feel like too much, Emily would step outside and play the flute. It always helped her to feel better and kept her strong. She needed to be strong for Serena.

Suddenly, she spotted an arrow sticking out from one of the hay bales and knew what this meant. It was time for her to go. She wiped the tears from her eyes as she pulled her flute away from her lips. She looked across the field, where her father was tending to the animals. He had also seen the arrow and knew it was time for his youngest daughter to leave. He nodded to her and Emily got up and raced inside the house to grab her things.

"Emily?" her mother asked when she saw Emily racing around.

"It's time, mom," was all Emily said before she stopped searching for her bag and jumped into her mother's arms. Her mother hugged her tight.

"Be careful," she said. "The Nighlok are dangerous. Don't let them get you."

"I won't," Emily nodded and she finally found her backpack sitting in the corner of the living room. She grabbed it and was about to put it on her shoulders when she heard footsteps approaching the living room. Thinking it was her mother, she didn't bother to look up. "I have to go, mom. I…"

"I can't say goodbye to my little sister?"

Emily's head shot up and her eyes were wide. It had been months since she had seen Serena out of bed. She wanted to jump into her sister's arms but she knew Serena wouldn't be able to handle it. She set her bag down and walked Serena over to the couch.

"You should be in bed, you can't…"

"Let you leave without giving you this," Serena pulled her one hand out from behind her back and presented Emily with a yellow stuffed ape. "I had mom buy it for me last time she went into town. Take it with you. That way, whenever you miss me, you'll always have something to hold."

Emily took the ape and hugged her sister. Serena wrapped her arms around Emily, holding her as tight as she could and never wanting to let go. She was so worried she would never see Emily again she didn't want to send her off. She couldn't allow her little sister to go into battle for her, but there was no other choice. Emily was the best person to take up the yellow Ranger's responsibilities.

"I'm counting on you," Serena whispered. "Make me proud."

Emily nodded and promised Serena she would before stuffing the ape in her bag and taking off.

-Samurai-

This was it. Kevin's final meet before he would have to give up swimming and wait for the call but just as he was about to dive into the water he saw an arrow hitting the empty podium two spaces to his left. He turned and saw the Samurai emblem on the note attached to the arrow and then looked up at his father in the crowd. The older man nodded and without hesitation Kevin took off, leaving the swim meet and leaving a bunch of people confused.

His father chased him outside and handed him his jacket and backpack. His father gave him a supportive pat on the back before Kevin race off, leaving his family and his dream behind him for the call of duty.

He knew exactly where the Shiba House was. His father had given him direction all through his childhood and Kevin knew he would find his way.

He ran through the city streets, trying to make it to the forest just outside the city until he spotted someone else running with almost the same kind of passion as him. That was when he began to slow down and he noticed that the city was already under attack and this woman was running towards the attack. He hurried over to her and stopped in front of her, bowing slightly.

"I'm ready to fight with you."

The woman frowned as she looked at him and noticed his jacket was unzipped, revealing his abs, which she had to admit were pretty amazing.

Kevin looked up at the woman, a little nervous and he saw her staring at his chest. Suddenly he was very aware of the fact that his jacket was open and he had no shirt with him. He zipped up his jacket and looked at her nervously.

"I'm sorry," he said as he finished with his jacket and removed his cap and goggles from his head, "I didn't know the red Ranger was a girl."

"I'm not the red Ranger," the woman said and Kevin thought he had made a serious mistake until the turtle Zord fell into her hand and folded back up. He looked at the pink Zord and then to the woman as she continued, "I'm pink. I'm Mia."

"Kevin," Kevin blushed, "I'm blue."

The dragon Zord came to life and jumped out of his pocket. Sensing her friend was back, the turtle Zord came to life as well and jumped in the air, floating around with the dragon as they got reacquainted.

A little ways off, Mike was on his way to finding his team. He had already noticed the attack in the city and was letting his bear Zord lead him to where he needed to be. But suddenly, the bear flew off at a faster speed than Mike had ever seen. Looking ahead, Mike realised why. In the air, above a young man and woman, were the turtle and dragon Folding Zords.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets as he approached them, "You guys must be my peeps."

The man looked him up and down once and frowned, "You're the red Ranger?"

Mike scoffed and shook his head, "No way, dude. I'm the mighty green. I'm Mike."

Mia looked to Kevin a little skeptically. She seemed to be about the same age as Kevin and from the stories she heard from her mother, the red and yellow Rangers were about the same age as her as well or a little older. This kid, who called himself the green Ranger, seemed to be barely out of his teens, if he was even out of them.

"If you say so," she shrugged before they all heard a horse and turned to see a man riding up on a white horse. Mia, Kevin and Mike all looked to each other and frowned.

"With an entrance like that, you have to be the red Ranger," Mike said as he looked to the man on the horse.

"Jayden," the man said as he hopped off the horse and held up his lion Folding Zord. He noted the others all seemed impressed and he knew being the red Ranger was a big deal, but he was just like the rest of them. He had trained, just like them, to be a Samurai. It just so happened he came from the red Ranger family and they had always been leaders.

"We're your team of Samurai," Kevin stepped forward with a big smile, eager to help his leader in battle.

Jayden looked at the three Samurai skeptically. They were one short and given the Zords in the air he could tell they were missing yellow. He assumed she was on her way, but he couldn't wait for her. There was already an attack in the city and they were losing precious time.

"I'm going to warn you now," he said to them, "If you follow me, there is no turning back. Either we defeat the Nighlok together, or they will take over the world. I will give these to only those who are ready to accept the challenge."

Jayden reached into a bag attached to the horse's saddle and pulled out four Samuraizers. He held them up for the others to see.

"Do not accept because you were trained to do so," the last thing Jayden wanted was for these people to put their lives in danger because they thought they had to. This was a big decision and it needed to be one they made for themselves, "Accept only if you are willing to commit and fight as Samurai Power Rangers with all your heart."

As he said this, Kevin looked down to his cap and goggles. He should have been back at the pool, winning his race and move up the ladder to swim in the Olympics. It had been his dream to achieve greatness even before he knew he was destined to be a Samurai. It wasn't going to be easy to give all that up.

Mia's turtle landed in her hand and she thought about the kids in the daycare, as well as her grandmother. She didn't want to leave home. She loved the life she had, despite all the troubles she had been forced to face. She didn't want to turn her back, even for a good cause.

Mike glanced over his shoulder and looked down the road. If he ran, he could still make it to the arcade before his friends started to worry about him. He had a high score to beat (even if it was his own) and he knew that his new Samurai life wouldn't allow him the chance to head back to the arcade and beat his score, nor would he be allowed to visit his friends and tell them why he had to leave them.

As much as Kevin had dreamed of the Olympics, he knew being a Samurai was important. The world was counting on him. Hopefully, he could pick up his dreams of swimming in the Olympics when his Samurai duties were done, but for now he was going to have to put that aside.

"Without hesitation," he nodded his head.

Mia agreed, "I've been planning for this since I was a little girl, so yes."

"Okay, okay," Mike turned back to the Rangers, "do we have to be so formal? Let's do this."

"You're all sure?" Jayden asked them. This was their final chance. He wouldn't blame any of them for running away.

"We're the protectors of the Earth," Mia nodded. "This is something we all know we have to do."

Jayden smiled and tossed them each a Samuraizer. Their parents should have taught them how to use them so he figured he could skip the long explanation of what they were and how to work them. He gestured to the monster attack, "Let's go."

The Moogers were causing nothing but trouble as they attacked everything in sight. Jayden didn't waste any time as he morphed and jumped into action, swinging his Spin Sword and taking out everything that got in his path before he challenged the Nighlok leading the attack. Mia, Kevin and Mike looked at each other, feeling very nervous. This was the real thing and if they weren't ready, they weren't going to make it.

"What are we waiting for?" Kevin asked, looking to each of his teammates, "We've got to help him. Go, go, Samurai!"

"Go, go Samurai!" Mia and Mike called, morphing alongside Kevin before jumping into battle. The Moogers weren't too challenging. There were many of them, but they weren't too powerful. It was just like their training.

But the Moogers kept appearing, and the four Rangers found they needed to regroup to catch their breath before they were overpowered.

"Keep fighting," Jayden told them.

"You know, I never really studied the Samurai history," Mike said, "but aren't we missing someone? I thought there were five of us; unless I failed basic math."

"Don't worry about the numbers," Jayden said. "Just keep fighting. We can defeat them."

He raced back into battle, knocking down the Moogers like it was nothing. Kevin looked to the green and pink Ranger and shrugged his shoulders before following his leader.

The Moogers kept coming and the Rangers were starting to feel tired. They weren't challenging opponents, but they had been fighting for a long time and it was starting to wear them out. They regrouped once again, this time around the corner, out of sight from the monsters.

"Okay, if there is a yellow Ranger, we could use his help."

"Her," both Mia and Jayden corrected Kevin. Before anyone could say anything else, the Nighlok started calling for them. Jayden could tell him team was tired, and he remembered what it was like in battle for him the first time. He pulled out the extra Samuraizer and gave it to Kevin.

"You three take a break," he said. "I'll finish off this Nighlok myself. If the yellow Ranger turns up, hand her this."

Kevin took it and nodded his head as Jayden set off to destroy the Nighlok himself. He wanted to help out his leader, but his arms were killing him and his lungs were burning.

"Okay, the red Ranger, incredible," Mike panted loudly as he doubled over to catch his breath. He was starting to wish, at this moment, that he had been a little more focused on training. Everyone else seemed to be so much more skilled than he was.

"He's supposed to be," Mia reminded him.

Suddenly, the Rangers heard another horse galloping in the distance. They exchanged looks while wondering who else could be riding up on a horse.

A young girl, much younger than even Mike, hopped off the horse and looked up at her teammates.

"Who are you?" Kevin asked her as she pet the horse and then set it free. Emily looked at the three morphed Rangers. She had definitely come to the right place. Her ape Zord landed in her hand. Behind their helmets, the three Rangers gasped. Mia leaned in closer to Kevin.

"And I thought green was young," she whispered.

"There has to be a mistake," Kevin shook his head. "You can't…"

"Dude, are we really going to question the help?" Mike tapped the blue Ranger in the chest, "Let's just see if she's up to the challenge."

Reluctantly, Kevin handed Emily her Samuraizer.

"Do you know how to work it?" he asked her. Emily nodded her head.

"Go, go Samurai!" she called, morphing into the yellow Ranger, surprising the other three who were expecting her to struggle, even just a little bit.

"Alright, well, now that that's settled," Mike shrugged his shoulders, "How about we go help Jayden?"

"How are you with a sword, kid?" Kevin asked Emily. She looked down at her Spin Sword and hesitated slightly before answering.

"I can get the job done."

"Good," he said. "Let's go."


	4. The First Fight

_Author's Note: Sorry for the confusion to those who have me on alert. I posted this chapter under the wrong story._

* * *

><p>With an extra set of hands helping them out, the Rangers were able to hold off the Moogers while Jayden took on the Nighlok by himself. He had no trouble, and Mia and Kevin proved to be worthy of their title of Samurai Rangers as well.<p>

Mike struggled, but managed to keep up. He was going to have a lot of work to do once he got to the Shiba House if he wanted to match Kevin, Mia and especially Jayden's skill level. But he knew he wasn't the one having the hardest time.

He noticed the yellow Ranger was talented, just like him, but she was struggling as well. Mike had been keeping an eye on her since she had first arrived and couldn't help but notice she needed help.

The Nighlok slipped past Jayden in an attempt to run and catch his breath and decided he would take on another colour Rangers. They didn't seem to be as powerful as red, yellow especially. With his swords, he struck her across the chest twice and pinned her up against the wall of a building.

"Too easy," he chuckled before a spear was forced between him and the yellow Ranger and he was pushed away and struck furiously by the green Ranger.

"Leave her alone, skirt face," Mike shouted, hitting the Nighlok one last time before he tumbled to the ground. Mike grinned to himself as Jayden jumped in to take over. He turned to look at Emily and helped her to her feet, "You okay?"

Emily rubbed her chest and nodded. Her mother had been right, the Ranger suits did offer quite a bit of protection, but the attack still hurt.

"I'm fine," she said. "Thanks."

"Happens to the best of us," Mike said. Emily looked over as Jayden finished off the Nighlok.

"Not him."

"He's just crazy good," Mike chuckled, "C'mon, there's still a few Moogers left to beat. Up for a double team?"

Emily smiled and nodded her head as she rushed into battle with Mike and helped Mia and Kevin finish off the Moogers.

When the battle was done, the team regrouped. Jayden stood before them.

"Nighlok usually have two lives," he said and glanced over his shoulder. "This one doesn't seem powerful enough to come back, though."

"If he knows what's good for him, he'll stay down," Mike bounced excitedly as he powered down. "That was wicked, dude! Where did you learn to fight that like?"

"It's called training," Kevin said as he powered down. He shot Mike a look. He hadn't failed to notice how Mike had struggled in the fight from the minute they began and judging by his attitude Kevin was sure Mike wasn't the kind of guy who took anything seriously. "Maybe you should try it."

"Dude, chill," Mike frowned. "We just met. That was our first fight."

"We did well," Mia nodded.

Jayden and the girls were last to power down out of their Ranger suits and Jayden immediately noticed there was something off about the yellow Ranger. He already knew a few basic facts about his team, such as their gender, their names, and how long they had been in training. He knew Kevin, Mia and Mike had been in training for about fifteen years, about the same length of time since their parents had completely their duty as Samurai, give or take about a year.

He also knew the yellow Ranger was supposed to be the oldest of the bunch, at about twenty-four, and must have had at least sixteen, if not seventeen years of training. He remembered the former yellow Ranger always spoke of her daughter and how she had been making quite progress way back when their parents were Rangers. If this was true, than the yellow Ranger on his team had been in training since the day she was born, as it looked like she was no older than sixteen.

"Let's go back to the house," he said, deciding he would address this mix-up after speaking with Ji. "You guys must be tired."

-Samurai-

The Rangers looked around in awe as they entered the gates of the Shiba House. Their new home was so much more than they had ever expected. It was rather large, with more than enough room to house the five of them and their mentor and from what they could tell from the outside it also had an outdoor barbecue and dojo. At least, while they were away from home, they knew they would be living in the lap of luxury.

"This is where you'll be staying," Jayden told his team as he kept a watchful eye on the yellow Ranger, who still hadn't introduced herself yet. She seemed shy, only speaking when spoken too, and very nervous. She clutched onto her backpack tightly, as if letting it go would mean the end of the world. Jayden took his eyes off her for a moment and pointed to the house, "We've got everything set up for you already. Unfortunately, you four will have to be sharing rooms."

"It looks like you have more than enough rooms for each of us," Mike pointed out until he was nudged in the chest by Mia. He looked down at her, "What? I'm just saying."

"We thought it would be helpful in the transition if you had roommates. "Jayden said. "Your roommates will also be your training partners. We practice bright and early every morning."

"Bright and early?" Mike asked and was nudged again, this time by Kevin. He furrowed his brow and huffed as he turned to Jayden, "Please tell me I'm not bunking with either of them," he pointed to Kevin and Mia.

"You'll be with Kevin," a man announced as he stepped out of the house with a welcoming smile on his face. He could tell instantly who each of his Rangers were, giving how much they looked like each of their parents.

Jayden smiled at the man before introducing him, "Guys, meet Mentor Ji," he stood next to his Mentor as Ji's eyes fell upon each of the Rangers. When he looked at who he assumed was Serena, he frowned slightly. Emily noticed the look and bowed her head slightly, trying to avert her gaze.

"The girls are in one room," Mentor said. "The boys are in another. You can set your stuff down in there and choose your beds."

"Let's go room hunting," Mike smirked, holding his bag over his shoulder as he raced into the house. He wanted to get first choice of which bed he slept in. Nothing was better than a good night's sleep (except maybe pizza). Kevin rolled his eyes and looked to Mia, disappointed he was going to have to share a room with the team jokester. His Samurai life was not off to a good start.

Mia smiled back at Kevin and watched as he reluctantly followed Mike inside. She then turned to the yellow Ranger.

"I guess that means it's us together," she smiled. "I don't think I caught your name. I'm Mia."

Emily looked nervously at Jayden and Mentor, knowing they were expecting Serena. She thought about lying but knew she would get caught eventually.

"Emily," she said. Mia smiled brightly.

"Let's go pick out our beds then, Emily," she said. "Do you want any help with your bag?"

Emily clutched onto her bag tighter, remembering the ape that was inside. She shook her head no and then followed Mia into the house. Jayden looked to Mentor Ji.

"I thought the yellow Ranger was supposed to be named Serena."

"Emily was the name of the youngest daughter," Mentor Ji said gravely. "She was only a year old when her mother came here."

"Wait, there are two Earth Samurai? Wouldn't Serena still technically be the yellow Ranger if that were the case? She's older, she's…"

"There must have been a mix-up," Mentor shook his head. "For now, we must trust the Ape's decision. If her folding Zord trusts her, we should as well."

"Mentor, she's like… twelve. She can't fight the Moogers and we can't spend all our time babysitting a replacement!"

"Would you like to send her back and be one Samurai Ranger short?" Mentor Ji asked Jayden. The red Ranger sighed loudly and shook his head.

"We'll see what she's got," he said. "But Serena better have a good reason for not showing up. Given her experience, I was counting on her to help me train the team."


	5. The Shiba House

Kevin made his bed just like he would at home. Everything was set up nicely. The blanket didn't have a single wrinkle, the pillow was placed perfectly in the center of his bed, and his belongings were lined up neatly on his night table. His half of the bedroom was perfectly done too. His clothes were all folded and put away in the dresser and completely out of sight and he had found a spot to put his training uniform so it would be an easy grab in the mornings. Finally, he had put all his personal hygiene tools away neatly in his drawers and on his half of the sink in the bathroom.

As he smoothed out the final wrinkles on his bed he smiled. Everything was as it should be. But when he turned around he was surprised at the mess on the other half of the room.

"What the hell?" he shouted. They hadn't even been in the room for an hour and already it looked like a tornado had ripped through. There were clothes everywhere, comic books were tossed onto the floor and the night table, video game disks were falling from the top of the dresser and in the middle of it all, Mike was lying in his bed (which looked like it had already been slept in) and he was playing video games. The blue Ranger huffed loudly and tore the handheld game from Mike's hand. "What happened in here?"

"Dude, relax," Mike snatched his game back, "I promise I'll keep my stuff to myself. Just don't come onto my side and I won't go onto your side."

"You're kidding me, right?" Kevin asked. "Mike, right?"

"Yeah."

"Clean this up!"

"Why, it's my stuff."

"Yeah, but… OW!" Kevin jumped as his foot stepped on something hard and he hopped back to the safety of his half of the bedroom and sat on his bed to inspect the bottom of his foot. Mike crawled over to the end of his bed and looked down at the floor. He picked up a shirt and found the bear Zord had made its home.

"There you are," he smirked, picking up the bear Zord. Kevin was appalled.

"I nearly crushed your bear Zord! Do you know how much trouble we would have been in if I had broken it?"

"Dude, trust me, these things are pretty unbreakable," Mike tossed his bear Zord from one hand to the other as the little creature reverted back to its inactive state. "I think we would all be impressed if your foot was strong enough to break it."

"You don't get it, do you?" Kevin muttered. "Just clean up a little bit. You weren't raised in a barn, were you?"

"No, but where were you raised?" Mike asked. "Dude, seriously, if it weren't for all the blue I would have thought I was sharing a room with that pink chick."

"Mia," Kevin said. "And I'd rather share a room with her, or anyone else, than live in this… pigsty!"

"Still, this is what most teenage boy bedrooms look like," Mike gestured around. "A little mess never killed anyone."

"A little mess?" Kevin looked around. He was obviously in a different room from Mike. "You're kidding me? Besides, you're not a teenage boy anymore, Mike. You're a Samurai! Discipline, order, respect. That's the code you should be living by."

"Yeah, that's not really my thing," Mike said as he laid back in bed and started up his handheld game once again. "I'll try to make it to training tomorrow morning if it's not at some ungodly hour."

"What would be reasonable for you? Eight?"

"Two."

"In the morning?"

"In the afternoon, dude," Mike laughed. "I go to bed in the morning."

"Midnight?"

"Two."

"In the morning?"

"When I'm feeling tired," Mike nodded. "Just the other night, though, I managed to stay up all night practicing."

"Finally, something we can agree on," Kevin let out a huge sigh of relief. Mike looked up from his game and held it out for Kevin.

"Sweet, you play?"

Kevin saw Mike was referring to the video games and lowered his head. If he was going to have to share a room with this immature slob, this was going to be a long stay at the Shiba House.

-Samurai-

Over in the girls' bedroom, things were going a little more smoothly. Bed had been chosen without arguments or complaints and the girls had gotten their things set up without a hitch, both keeping their stuff on their own sides and agreeing on mutual territory.

Mia thought it was a little weird that Emily was so young. When she imagined her only female teammate, she thought she would at least be in her twenties, but Emily looked like she was still a high-school kid, barely out of elementary. Still, it didn't bother Mia too much. She loved younger kids and could get along with most people her age. If Emily was right in the middle, Mia figured she could adapt. Besides, there was something about Emily that seemed to pull out Mia's nurturing instincts. She seemed so shy and scared that Mia wanted to take care of Emily. She wanted to take her under her wing and let her know that being a Samurai was going to be more fun that scary.

"So," she tried to start up a conversation with her teammate, "That battle was pretty neat, huh? I mean, it was hard work, but I think we can handle the Moogers."

"I guess," Emily nodded. "Sorry I was so late."

"Better late than never," Mia shrugged her shoulders and sat on her bed, keeping herself open to conversation, hoping Emily soon feel comfortable enough to open up. "So, you're probably still in High School or something, right?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Emily nodded. "My teacher's going to be pretty angry when I don't hand in my science project tomorrow. I worked all weekend on it."

"While you're here, are you going to do online courses or…"

Emily shook her head, "Mom wants me to focus on my training. I'm already behind all you guys. School's just going to get in the way."

"So, you're a drop-out?"

"We'll figure something out once this is done," Emily shrugged.

"How old are you, exactly?"

"Sixteen," Emily whispered. "How old are you?"

"Twenty-one. If you're sixteen, you must have only been a baby when our parents fought Master Xandred."

"So?"

"So… when my mom got back she told me about our parents' team and how my teammates, you guys, were already in training. You must be pretty far ahead of us if you've been training since you were little."

"I, uh… didn't start training until I was eight," Emily whispered and clutched her stuffed Ape close to her chest. She didn't want to tell people Serena was sick. She didn't want anyone to know she was here because she was a replacement. She knew she would never be as good as her sister; she didn't want her team thinking that as well.

"Oh… well… I'm sure you'll catch up in no time."

Emily didn't say anything as she set her stuffed ape down on her bed next to her pillow. Mia spotted it with a smile.

"That's pretty cute," there had to be some way to get Emily to open up. "I had a stuffed turtle when I was little. I outgrew it a few years ago and donated it to a shelter."

Emily didn't say anything. She just sat down on her bed and took the ape back into her arms.

"Does it have a name?" Mia asked.

"Monkey the Ape," Emily whispered.

"Monkey the… okay, that's cute."

"OW! Mike, what the hell am I stepping on!" the girls heard Kevin shouting from the other room and Mia rolled her eyes. She looked at Emily.

"They don't sound like they're going to get along," she laughed. "How about we go rescue them?"

Mia led Emily out of the room and walked her down the hall until they found Kevin and Mike in the common room. Kevin was scratching something off the bottom of his foot and Mike was sitting in a chair with his handheld video game in his hand. When the boys spotted the girls, Kevin had a look of relief on his face.

"If we all agreed to it, do you think we could talk Mentor and the red Ranger into letting us switch rooms?"

"I doubt it," Mia shook her head. "What's on your foot?"

"I wish I knew," Kevin sighed. "One hour. He's been here for one hour and the floor in our room is already radioactive."

"I've cleaned up worse from stranger places before," Mia said as she offered Kevin a hand, "Let's go to the kitchen and see if we can wash this off."

As Mia helped Kevin walk to the bathroom without getting the floors sticky and messy, Emily took a seat on one of the cushioned stools and looked at Mike curiously. He seemed very interested in whatever he was holding between his hands.

"What are you doing?" she asked him. Mike paused his game and looked at her.

"What does it look like?"

Emily shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know."

"Battle Ninja Five," Mike said, flipping his game around so she could see the screen.

"Aren't we Samurai, though?"

"Ninjas are cooler," Mike smirked. He got up from the chair and walked over to Emily. He sat down on the stool next to her and showed her the game. "See, isn't this neat."

"How do you play?" Emily asked. Mike placed the game in her hand.

"It's just like any other game. Here I'll set it to level one, you'll learn as you go."

Mike set up the game for Emily but he still saw a look of confusion on her face. He furrowed his brow.

"What's wrong? You look like you've never seen a video game before."

"I haven't," Emily shook her head. "I know about them, but dad didn't let me have any."

"You've never…" Mike lost his breath for a moment as he tried to recover from the shock, "You're… you're kidding me?"

"I'm sorry…"

"Don't be sorry," Mike chuckled, "I blame your dad for this. Looks like I have a lot to teach you."

He handed her back the game and leaned in close to help her get through the first level. He gave her clear instructions on what she needed to do and found she was a quick learner, though she still killed her player every time she reached a new obstacle.

"No…" Emily whined when her Ninja was cut in half. "Not again."

Mike chuckled and restarted the game for her (again). Normally, if he were playing with one of his friends, he would have lost his cool by now and taken over for them so the game could actually progress, but he didn't feel that way with Emily. Admittedly, he found it rather cute every time she pouted when her Ninja was killed.

"Try jumping a little earlier next time," Mike advised her. "You'll get it. It just takes practice."

-Samurai-

In the kitchen, Mia had finally removed whatever was stuck to the bottom of Kevin's foot and couldn't help but laugh when he had to inspect it, as if he didn't trust her when she said she was done.

"Is it all clear?"

"Yeah, thanks a lot," Kevin smiled and set his foot down. He leaned back in his seat, "How did you learn to take sticky stuff off feet?"

"I worked in a daycare," Mia shrugged. "Trust me, if there's a mess that can be made, kids will make it. You don't want to know what they can do with glue in under thirty seconds."

"If you're so used to messes maybe you want to share a room with Mike and I can bunk with the kid," Kevin suggested.

"He can't be that bad," Mia shook her head as she placed the rag she had used to clean Kevin's foot in the sink.

"You're kidding, right?" Kevin asked, looking up at her rather shocked before he got to his feet. "Follow me. I'm about to prove you wrong."

He led her to his and Mike's bedroom and opened the door wide. First, he showed her his half of the room. Clean and organized, exactly how a Samurai's room should be. Then, he directed her attention to the other half of the room.

"Can you find the floor?"

"It's under all those clothes," Mia chuckled. "I'm sure he'll tidy up once he gets settled."

"He is settled, Mia," Kevin shook his head. "That's what scares me. What kind of teenage brat am I living with?"

"I don't think I would call him a brat," Mia said. "Besides, he seems a lot more outgoing than my roommate."

"The twelve year old?"

Mia smacked Kevin in the chest, "Sixteen."

"Does it make a difference?"

"Okay, so she's a little young..."

"A little young?" Kevin asked. "I've got swim medals older than she is, especially if she twelve."

"Emily's sixteen."

"Emily?" Kevin groaned loudly. "Oh, great. Nighlok beware of our little girl Emily."

"Oh, like Kevin's an intimidating name."

"I'd run away from a Kevin before I would run away from an Emily. Especially when she's only twelve."

"Sixteen."

"Whatever," Kevin rolled her eyes. "As far as I can see, this team has three Samurai, one disgusting slob and a little girl. How are we supposed to defeat the Nighlok like that?"

"Do me a favour, Kev:" Mia tapped his shoulder, "give them a chance. Who knows, tomorrow in training, they may surprise you."

"Mike's going to clean up his act and Emily's going turn into some kind of fighting machine?"

"You worry about Mike," Mia looked back to Mike's side of the room, "I'll take care of Emily."

"Good luck," Kevin called to her as Mia started to leave the room. She turned back to him.

"You'll need it more than I will."

"As long as he doesn't snore," Kevin muttered. "If he snores, he's out of here."


	6. Emily's Sister

It was the morning after the Rangers arrival and Mentor Ji was up bright and early. He figured it would be appropriate to greet his houseguest with a warm home cooked breakfast for when they woke up. He expected them up no later than 8:00 so their training could begin at 9:00.

Jayden was the first in the kitchen, which didn't surprise Mentor Ji. He went to grab himself something to eat from the fridge but Mentor shook his head.

"You will be eating with your team this morning," he told Jayden. "How do you expect to work together if you won't eat together?"

"They aren't up yet."

"Make an effort, Jayden," Mentor said. "They are counting on you to keep them safe, after all. They must be able to get to know you."

Jayden grumbled and took a seat at the table to wait for his teammates. He wasn't a social creature by nature. For as long a long time it had just been him and Mentor Ji. He didn't venture out much because his training usually got in the way, and even when he didn't he didn't try to make any friends. He knew just how much danger he would put them in, and the last thing he wanted to do was put someone he cared for in harm's way. He could barely cope when he knew strangers on the streets were getting hurt. He couldn't imagine the guilt if he let a friend jump in the path of danger.

It was for that reason he didn't want a team of Rangers. He wanted to do things on his own. The only reason he had assembled them was because Mentor had convinced him the Nighlok were getting stronger and he needed them to fight.

But he was not going to be their friend.

The first person out of bed was Kevin and he seemed wide awake and ready to start his day. He took a seat at the table, seeing Mentor Ji was already preparing breakfast.

"How did you sleep?" Mentor asked Kevin when it was obvious Jayden wasn't going to socialize.

"Fine until my roommate started snoring," Kevin crossed his arms over his chest. "I know we need a green Ranger, but this kid's not a Samurai!"

"Dude, if you have a problem with me just say it," Mike said as he walked into the room in his boxers and opened his mouth wide for a yawn. "I've got fifty different problems with you, all of which can be solved once we get a surgeon in here to remove that stick from your ass."

"I don't have a stick up my ass," Kevin frowned as Mentor set the breakfast plates down in front of the boys. "I behave like a Samurai should behave. With order, discipline…"

"Blah, blah, blah," Mike waved his hand in Kevin's face and turned to Jayden and Mentor, "This guy's so rigid he doesn't need an alarm clock. He woke up right at six and then woke me up!"

"A task I found was nearly impossible," Kevin rolled his eyes. "First I had to make sure I didn't step on anything as I walked over to your bed, and then I had to find you. How on earth do you sleep buried under the blankets like that?"

While the green and blue Rangers bickered, Jayden looked over to Mentor Ji with a sigh and a shake of his head. Mentor nodded. He knew Jayden wasn't impressed, but it was only the first morning.

Finally, the last two Rangers to walk in were the girls in their pyjamas. Mia looked at the boys and took a seat at the table while Emily began to blush when she noticed Mike was only dressed in his boxers. Mike noticed the blush in Emily's cheeks and was suddenly very aware of the fact that he was half-naked. In his early morning haze he had completely forgotten that he was now living with girls and needed to get dressed before leaving the safety of his bedroom.

"Well, it seems we are all here," Mentor announced as he gave the girls their breakfast. "Once we have finished breakfast we'll meet outside for training."

"At this hour?" Mike groaned, looking at the clock, "Dude, this time yesterday I was still sleeping."

"Don't call him dude," Jayden and Kevin both said to Mike. The green Ranger looked at both of them strangely.

"Whoa, sorry," he leaned over and whispered in Emily's ear, "Looks like the stiff twins got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning."

Emily couldn't hold back a small giggle while Kevin and Jayden continued to glare at Mike.

-Samurai-

While Mentor did have his doubts about the team, they seemed to mostly be erased once he saw them in training. Though they were all at very different levels, their parents had trained them well.

Kevin was a fantastic swordsman and in a few weeks he would be giving Jayden a run for his money. He knew the stances, he knew the techniques and he was easily taking Mike out. As far as Mentor Ji could see, there was no one better than Kevin out of all his new arrivals, and even Jayden seemed impressed with the blue Ranger. However, Kevin seemed very impatient, or like Mike pointed out at breakfast, rigid. He didn't tolerate any errors, especially from the green Ranger, and rather than turning Mike's mistakes into learning opportunities, he wasted his time scolding the green Ranger. He also didn't seem to appreciate it when Mike tried to offer him feedback. It was as if Mike's advice meant nothing to Kevin.

The next was Mia. While she wasn't quite as skilled as Kevin, she was not far behind. After a few pointers, Mentor was sure she would turn into a fine warrior. Unlike Kevin, though, she was a lot more patient with her training partner and tried to coach Emily wherever she could, and her advice was usually pretty good. Mentor had nothing to worry about when it came to Mia and her fighting skills.

Mike and Emily were another matter completely. Mike was lazy. Mentor could easily tell. He kept whining about needing a break and about how tough Kevin was being. While it was true that the blue Ranger could loosen up, his advice for Mike was the same as what Mentor would have told him: eyes on your opponent, elbows up, loosen up, stand up straight, sense his attacks, defence is sometimes the best offence… Mike's biggest problem was that he didn't seem to listen. He would nod his head when given advice, but he would never take them into practice and he kept complaining about how all this practice was stupid.

Mentor wasn't surprised by Emily's lack of skill. Given her age, he had assumed she was going to be far behind and had to admit to being impressed by the level she had reached with only a few short years of training behind her, but she was still at the bottom of the pack. She had the basics mastered, and every once in a while he could see her getting the upper hand on Mia, but she had no confidence and as soon as she was about to take Mia out she would hesitate and Mia would turn the tables on her, knocking her to the ground. Mentor worried for Emily, just like he worried for Mike.

"Who do you think would win in a fight?" Jayden asked, taking his eyes off the training for a second, "Mike or Emily?"

"That is a tough one," Mentor said, trying to be fair to his two youngest students. "Emily's mastered the basics with her sword while Mike's style seems to be…"

"Lacking?" Jayden laughed until he was nudged by Mentor. The older man looked down at the red Ranger.

"Mike uses his strength when he fights. If he could get past Emily's defense, he could knock her down with one hit."

"Meanwhile, Emily's got to learn how to actually hit her opponent," Jayden said.

Mentor nodded and took a deep breath, "For what it's worth, Mia seems to be holding back as well."

"I don't blame her. Emily looks like she'll be snapped in half with one good hit. Seriously, Mentor, where's Serena? If this is her idea of a prank, it's not funny."

On the training mat, Emily could hear the conversation between Jayden and Ji and as soon as she realised they were talking about her she found herself distracted, letting her guard down. Suddenly, Emily felt a sharp pain in her knee as her legs were taken out from under her and she hit the ground hard.

"Emily!" Mia cried, realising she had hit the yellow Ranger harder than she wanted. She had expected Emily to be able to block that hit, but the yellow Ranger hadn't. She set her sword down and knelt next to the youngest Samurai, "Emily, are you okay?"

Emily looked down at her knee, feeling it throbbing in pain but she nodded her head. She didn't want Mia to think she had hurt her. It wasn't Mia's fault she had gotten hurt. Emily hadn't been paying attention. The first thing her mother had told her when she began her training was to focus on the battle. Nothing else mattered.

"Ow! Dude, hold up for a minute," Mike said to Kevin as he set down his sword to check up on Emily. He had seen her fall and wanted to make sure she was okay. Kevin reluctantly dropped his sword. Without a partner, he couldn't train anyways. He crossed his arms over his chest and watched from afar as Mia and Mike tried to comfort the injured Emily.

Emily tried responding to their questions as best as she could, but her real attention was on Mentor and Jayden and what they thought of her. She already knew she wasn't as good as Serena, but now her leader doubted her as well.

"Here," Mia reached for Emily's knee, "Let me see…"

Emily saw Jayden scoff slightly before turning away from her and heading inside, not even bothering to see if she was okay. He didn't have to, either. Emily knew she wasn't really part of the team. She was just a replacement. They didn't need her, so why should he care about her.

But it still stung and tears welled up in her eyes, but she couldn't cry. She needed to be strong, like her sister would have been. As Mia reached for her knee, Emily pushed her hands away and got to her feet, stumbling slightly as she did.

"No! I'm fine!"

"Emily!" Mia called but Emily walked (or limped) inside and hid in the dojo. She couldn't go to her room to hide. She shared that room with Mia and sooner or later the pink Ranger would find her. She wanted to be alone.

Outside, Mia and Mike exchanged curious and worried looks for their yellow teammate, and even Kevin seemed slightly concerned. Mentor looked to the Samurai and then to the house. There had to be something he was missing. If Emily was here instead of Serena, there had to be a reason.

"If this were a real fight you all wouldn't be able to sit there and wonder if your teammate was fine," Mentor told the remaining three. "Continue with your training."

"But Emily…"

"I will go check up on her," Mentor interrupted Mike as he turned inside to find his youngest student. He saw Jayden coming back from the common room and ordered him to overlook the rest of the training while he started his search for Emily. He searched the entire house until he finally found her sitting all alone in the dojo, rubbing her injured knee. He let out a long sigh as he knelt down next to her and inspected her knee. It was red and swollen where Mia had hit and Emily was going to have a nasty bruise, especially if it went untreated.

"Come," Mentor instructed Emily as he got to his feet and offered her his hand. Emily took it and he pulled her up. He held her walk to the common room and set her down on her cushion before heading into the kitchen. He grabbed an ice-pack and then remembered what Emily's mother always used when she got hurt. He searched the freezer and found a bag of peas. He pulled it out and wrapped them in a cloth before heading back into the common room. He picked up a pillow on his way over to Emily and propped her leg up before gently setting the peas on her knee.

Emily saw he had chosen to give her peas rather than ice and looked to Mentor curiously, "How did you know?"

"I have my ways," he smirked. Emily repositioned the peas on her knees so they rested comfortably before she looked up at Mentor.

"Serena used to give me peas whenever I got hurt," she whispered. "I used to hurt myself a lot."

"We all take a few spills now and then," Mentor told her. Emily shook her head.

"I wish that was me," she sighed and looked down. "Don't worry Mentor Ji, I'll be okay. You can go outside and watch the others."

Mentor's expression softened slightly as he watched Emily try to tend to her knee by herself. She seemed to know what she was doing and it looked like she hated herself for that. He could hear her muttering to herself about being clumsy and useless and he knew he had to intervene.

"For your first time, you did rather well," he told her. "I do admit, I had my doubts, but I was impressed."

"You're just saying that," Emily mumbled. "I know you want Serena to be here."

"We take what we're given," Mentor said. "If you are the yellow Ranger then you are the yellow Ranger."

"I'm not the yellow Ranger, though," Emily lowered her head, "Don't pretend like you're okay with this. I know you're disappointed."

"Curious," Mentor corrected her, "I am curious. I haven't heard from your mother in a long time, but last I knew she would be sending your sister to be the yellow Ranger."

"Serena," Emily nodded. "That's not going to happen. Trust me, if there was any way she could be here, she would."

Mentor noticed Emily started to seem even more withdrawn at the mention of her sister and he began to worry something had happened. There had to be a reason why Emily was here instead of Serena, and the reason had to be a good one, but it seemed to be affecting Emily in a bad way.

"If you don't mind my asking, why isn't she here?"

"She just can't be here," Emily shrugged her shoulders. "She can't be here so she sent me to replace her."

"What's keeping her from coming?"

"Nothing."

"Emily…"

"I don't want to talk about it," Emily pushed herself up from the stool and tried to get to her feet, but her knee wasn't ready to hold her weight yet and she fell down. In her fall she accidentally knocked over the bonsai sitting on the table, sending it to the ground and smashing the pot. The tree was damaged, the stones in the pot scattered everywhere and the broken pieces of the pot threatened to cut the foot of anyone who wasn't watching where they were going. "No…" Emily whined.

Mentor lifted her back onto her cushion before she caused any more damage to herself or his bonsai. As he began to pick up the pieces he could hear Emily moving to help.

"Stay where you are," he told her kindly. "This shouldn't take me long."

"I made the mess," she said. "I should clean it up."

"You shouldn't be moving around with your knee," Mentor reminded her. "I will clean. It is no trouble."

And Mentor did just that, picking up every last piece and putting it away safely in the garbage so no one else would get hurt. When he was done, he looked to Emily. He didn't think it was possible, but she seemed even more upset than ten minutes before.

"It was an accident," he assured her. "You have nothing to worry about."

"I'm sorry."

"It is my fault," he told her. "If you weren't ready to talk I shouldn't have pushed you."

Emily turned away from Mentor and focused on her knee then the garbage, where the pieces of the bonsai had been discarded. She bit her lower lip nervously.

"Serena's sick," she said softly to Mentor Ji. His face fell.

"Oh."

"You can't tell the others," Emily made him promise. "I don't want them to know."

Mentor nodded his head. He knew the details of Emily's life weren't important. Mia, Mike, and Kevin already seemed to accept the fact that she was their yellow Ranger, even if they weren't all that happy about it, and Mentor didn't want to make things easy for Jayden. The red Ranger wanted answers from his teammates, but he didn't want to socialize. If he wanted to figure out why Emily was on his team instead of Serena, he was going to have to figure it out for himself.

"I won't," he promised her. "How bad is it? Surely it must be more than the cold or the flu if your mother has sent you."

Emily lowered her head and nodded, "She's been sick since I was eight," she explained. "It started off kinda coming and going… with a lot more coming than going and by the time she got checked out by a doctor and they figured out what it was, they said it had spread too far. There wasn't much they could do for her."

"Emily…"

"They tried everything, but nothing worked. Last year, we were told she was waiting to die."

Mentor's heart broke for Emily. He didn't know what to say.

Emily continued, "Mom started training me shortly after Serena first got really sick and I've been working really hard to reach her level but she was just so good and everyone here is so good too. I feel kind of stupid for coming here. Serena would have been so much better than me."

"Perhaps," Mentor nodded, "but your sister had more time to train, more time to practice and sharpen her skills. Given your journey, I'm amazed you've made it this far."

"But it's not good enough," Emily sighed. She pulled out her folding Zord from her pocket and held it out for Mentor to take, "Here. If you want to send me home…"

Mentor closed her hand over her Zord and held it gently in hers as he shook his head.

"Who said anything about sending you home?" he asked. "You may not be who we were expecting, but you are a member of our team. You are a Samurai by blood."

Emily nodded her head slowly and looked down at her Ape Zord as it came to life and bounced in her hand, trying to cheer her up. She chuckled slightly at the Ape's antics, letting a smile form on her lips.

Mentor reached over and pulled Emily into a hug, "I'm very sorry. Taking your sister's place and leaving your family in such a state must not be easy."

"It's okay," Emily shrugged her shoulders. "It could be worse, I guess."

Mentor let go of Emily and looked down at her as she started to play with the Ape Zord again. He couldn't imagine how things could get worse for her. Her sister was terminally ill and Emily had to leave home and break contact with her family. As far as he understood, Serena could pass any day and Emily wouldn't know it. And yet she still believed things could have been worse.

Mentor rose up from his stool and placed his hand on Emily's shoulder, squeezing comfortingly before letting her play with her Zord. As he made his way out of the room, the others walked in from training.

"Emily, are you okay?" Mia was first to ask, feeling guilty for hitting Emily so hard. She took a seat next to the yellow Ranger and eyed the frozen peas nervously. "Is it bad?"

"It'll probably just be sore for a little while," Emily said. "I'll be fine."

"I'm so sorry…"

"Don't be," Emily shook her head. "I wasn't paying attention. It was my fault."

Mike flicked his finger over his shoulder, "I brought my game console from home. Seeing as you'll probably be sitting for the rest of the day, how about I show you how to play a few more games, considering you've never been allowed to before."

"Will I be able to blow more people up like yesterday?" Emily asked him. Mike chuckled and nodded. She seemed to love his video games, especially when she watched the players on the screen blow to pieces.

"Yeah, Em. You can blow them up."

Kevin looked at Emily nervously. He wasn't too sure what to make of her just yet. She was young, behind in her training and seemed rather unfocused (judging by her performance today), but he had to admit, she seemed to care a lot more about her responsibilities than Mike did, and that did earn her a few points in his book.

"Do you want some help moving to the couch?" he asked her. "You can lean back. You'll be more comfortable."

"Thanks," Emily nodded and while Kevin helped Emily switch from the stool to the couch, Mike looked to Mia.

"Okay, I think his problem is just with me."

"He'll warm up to you," she chuckled. "Just give him some time."


	7. Relationships Are Made

After a long day, Mike was ready for bed. He had stayed up late into the night playing his video games and had even skipped out on evening training. If Emily was going to miss training, he didn't see why he had to go. Sure, her knee was still badly bruised, but what was the point of training without her? His team had complained when he said he wasn't coming, but dropped the issue and told him he would be missing out. Mia had been the first to let the matter go, and then Jayden had walked off without another word. Mentor and Kevin had seemed the least pleased, but when Mike insisted he had had enough and promised he would work harder in training the following morning, they had turned their back on him to train.

It was now late in the night. Very late. Everyone was already in bed and Mike could barely keep his eyes open. As the screen flashed game over, he took that as a sign that it was time for bed and got up off the couch. He turned off his game and made his way to his room.

He dropped into his bed and noticed something strange. It felt different. It felt clean. It felt like someone had made the bed. He sat up and looked around. His half of the room was clean, but he hadn't cleaned it. All his clothes were put away, all his games were organized neatly on his dresser (and in alphabetical order) and his training uniform was clean and laid out, ready for the morning.

Mike knew he hadn't been the one to clean. He hadn't cleaned his room since he was seven. The girls weren't likely suspects. While Emily had regained the ability to walk, he doubted she would be able to move around enough to clean his bedroom, and Mia didn't strike him as the kind of person who would invade his privacy and touch his stuff.

There was only one person left who could have done something like this.

"Kevin!" Mike screamed as he jumped out of his bed and started ripping the blankets off, trying to get them back to the way he liked them. "What the hell, dude? What's wrong with you?"

Kevin lifted his head from his pillow after the rude awakening, "Do you mind? I was sleeping."

"Do I mind? Did you mind when you touched all my stuff?"

"You should be thankful," Kevin grunted as he rested his head back against his pillow. "This place is finally clean. All your stuff is put away properly. This is so much better."

"For who?" Mike shouted. He grabbed his blankets from his bed and his pillow and stormed out, "Dude, I'm not going to take this. I'll sleep somewhere else."

As Mike was about to storm out he bumped into Mia. All the screaming he had done had woken her and Emily up and she was coming to see what the problem was.

"What's going on?" she asked, flicking on the light switch and seeing the room was clean. She had been in there early with Kevin and knew Mike's side had been a disaster. She had to admit feeling relieved it was clean. "You finally put your stuff away, Mike."

"No!" Mike shouted and pointed his finger accusingly at Kevin, "He did! He touched my stuff and cleaned up my half of the room!"

"You did?" Mia turned to Kevin. The blue Ranger sat up in bed and shrugged.

"Tell me this isn't better," he said.

"It's my stuff!" Mike screamed. "No one should be allowed to touch it but me! Who the hell gave you permission to even look at my stuff?"

"I did you a favour."

"Really?" Mike asked and stomped over to Kevin's side. He opened his dresser drawer and started throwing clothes onto the floor, "Well, let me return the favour."

"Mike!" Mia called his name but he didn't stop until everything had been dumped out. At this point, Kevin was boiling red with rage and he was ready to lunge at the green Ranger. Mia stepped in between the two of them and she placed her hands on Mike's chest, "Stop it! Both of you! You're acting like children!"

"He's impossible to live with!" both boys said, pointing the finger at the other male Ranger. Mia bit her tongue and grabbed Mike's arm, pulling him away from Kevin's bed. She sat him down on his own and turned to Kevin.

"You shouldn't have touched his stuff," she told the blue Ranger. "If you had a problem with the way he kept his room you should have spoken to him first instead of cleaning it up yourself. Mike's stuff is Mike's stuff and he can do what he wants with it."

"Ha!" Mike stuck out his tongue at Kevin, "She's on my side."

"Ha," Mia laughed, shaking her head at Mike, "I'm on no one's side. You've got to realise you share with room with someone else. Have a little respect for Kevin and stop being such a slob!"

"Hey."

"Ha," it was Kevin's turn to stick his tongue out and it didn't go unnoticed by Mia. She rolled her eyes and finally got an idea. She ripped Mike's comforter from his hand and then pulled Kevin's off his bed.

"Goodnight," she told the two boys as she walked out of the room with their blankets. Kevin and Mike exchanged looks.

"Hey! Those are ours!"

"Emily and I are cold," Mia said. "Mentor and Jayden keep this house cooler than what we're used to. We can use the extra blankets. Besides, there are enough clothes on the floor to keep you both warm. Goodnight."

"She can't do that," Mike's jaw dropped as Mia walked out. "Can she… is she allowed to do that?"

"Shut up," Kevin growled as his head hit the pillow and he tried to sleep.

Mia walked back into her room, trying to stay as quiet as possible in case Emily had fallen back to sleep. She dropped the blankets on the floor as she looked over to her roommate. She saw Emily had gone to sleep but her blanket had fallen down slightly towards the foot of the bed and her Monkey the Ape was nowhere to be seen. Mia didn't know much about Emily but she had noticed that Emily seemed to cherish her stuffed Ape. She found it on the floor beside Emily's bed and tucked it back under her arm before pulling up the blankets to keep her warm.

"Goodnight, Emy," she whispered as she walked back to her own bed to tuck herself in.

Emily opened her eyes when she heard Mia crawling into her own bed and a faint smile crossed her lips. She looked at her ape and then over to Mia. No one, except Serena, had ever called her Emy. It was something special for Emily; something that made Emily feel good and safe. Her eyes started to water as she thought of her sister but she couldn't cry. She felt homesick. Very homesick. She hadn't been here for long, but everything was so strange and complicated. There was so much pressure and stress that she couldn't relax, everyone was fighting. It was nothing like back home, except for Mia.

Clutching her ape to her chest, Emily sat up in bed.

"Mia?" she whispered softly, checking to see if the pink Ranger was asleep. There wasn't a response right away so Emily started to lower herself back into bed.

Finally, "Yeah, Emy?"

Emily sat up again, "I don't feel good."

"Like sick?" Mia lifted her head and looked at Emily. The yellow Ranger nodded her head. "Like throw up sick?"

Emily shook her head this time, "No…"

"Lonely sick?" Mia asked. "Homesick?"

Emily nodded, "Yeah."

Mia shifted over in her bed, "Do you want to sleep here tonight?"

Emily nodded nervously so Mia invited her over. Emily crawled into bed and laid next to Mia, her ape still wrapped tightly in her arms.

Mia ran her fingers through the tuff of hair on the ape's head as she looked to Emily, "I know it's hard to believe, but things will get easier."

"You think?" Emily asked.

"Yeah. And if you ever get lonely or homesick, you can talk to me. I'm a good listener."

"Do you miss your family?"

"A lot," Mia nodded. "But I know they'll be waiting there when I get home."

"That must feel good," Emily sighed and closed her eyes. Mia looked at her curiously.

"Isn't your family waiting for you?"

"Yeah," Emily nodded, "but I don't know how long they can wait for."

"What do you mean?"

Emily shrugged her shoulders, "Nothing. Don't worry about it. Goodnight, Mia."

"Goodnight, Emy," Mia whispered, though she was still curious about what Emily had said. She knew her childhood had been difficult, but the one thing she didn't doubt was that her parents and her grandmother were going to be waiting for her to come home, and they were going to welcome her with open arms. What could have been going on at home with Emily to make her doubt her family?


	8. Everyone's Different

"Thanks," Kevin whispered as Mia handed him a cool cloth to hold to over his eye. He had let his guard down for a quick moment in training, earning himself a punch to the face from Mike. It had been unexpected and uncalled for, but even Kevin had to admit it was a good move. He had let his guard down and Mike had done well to take advantage of that.

But that didn't change his opinion of the green Ranger at all. Kevin still saw Mike as a lazy, selfish, sloppy and self-centered boy.

"I probably would have punched you too," Mia smirked, taking a seat across from Kevin at the table. "If you had touched my stuff…"

"You saw what his half of the room looked like," Kevin defended himself. "I couldn't sleep knowing I was surrounded by filth."

"So it was better than sleeping without a blanket?" Mia said. Kevin glared at her.

"I didn't appreciate that."

"What do you want me to do?" Mia shrugged her shoulders. "You're both acting like babies about this."

"I'm acting like a baby? I didn't skip out on training last night to play video games."

"That was Mike's decision. We can't make him train if he doesn't want to."

"He should want to. We have the fate of the world in our hands! He needs to…"

"Smarten up, I know, but that doesn't mean you're right."

"So he's right?"

"No," Mia shook her head. "Look, he does need to clean up his act a little. This isn't a high school wrestling team. It's the real deal. But maybe you can loosen up a little too. Does his room really need to be spotless?"

"Yes."

"No," Mia shook her head. "Growing up, I made my bed every morning. Emily didn't. I don't like a messy room either, and Emily doesn't seem to mind a little clutter. When we noticed there was trouble there we decided to compromise. She could leave a few things lying around on her side of the room and I wouldn't touch them or let them bother me. She agreed to make her bed in the mornings so the room looked a little tidier than it was. Give a little, get a little."

"But your room is still clean," Kevin pointed out. "Even if there's a bit of a mess, it's still shining."

"I'm just saying, there's got to be a middle ground somewhere."

"Yeah. Separate rooms," Kevin looked around the house, "C'mon, Mia, Mentor and Jayden are obviously holding out! There's got to be another room here somewhere."

"Are you really going to question a decision made by your Samurai Mentor?"

"He said our roommates were supposed to help us with our transition. Do you see that happening?"

"Between you and Mike? No. But you're not going to solve your problems by running away. Come up with a solution. Tell him he can do what he wants on his side of the room if he shows up for training every morning and evening."

"He should be doing that anyways."

Mia shook her head, "I give up. If you want to live in misery, be my guest."

Kevin took a deep breath, "I'm sorry, Mia. I guess I can give him another shot."

"It's all I ask."

"But if you were stuck with his snoring, you would want to run away too," Kevin said. "I'm serious, Mia, the kid sucks at being a Samurai, but he sure can play the nasal trumpet."

"Speaking of trumpets," Mia glanced over Kevin's shoulder and out the window, where she saw her own roommate was sitting outside on the bench and playing a flute, "Guess who can play the flute."

"Who?" Kevin looked to where Mia was pointing and saw Emily. He watched her for a moment before turning back to the pink Ranger, "I guess I haven't asked: what's it like bunking with the twelve year old?"

"Sixteen," Mia corrected, "and it's not as bad as you think… but I worry about her."

"Me too," Kevin said, "I'm worried about accidentally stepping on her."

"I meant… we slept together last night."

Kevin wished he had taken a drink of water or juice so he could spit it out and gasp: "What?"

Mia realised how he had taken it and groaned, shaking her head, "She slept in my bed last night."

"I was going to say…" Kevin frowned.

"She was homesick and lonely. I thought it would help."

"Did it?"

Mia shrugged her shoulders, "I think… I don't know."

"We're all a little homesick," Kevin pointed out. "But that's just another reason why Emily's not…"

"Not what?" Mia asked, crossing her arms over her chest and suddenly Kevin felt like he was being threatened. There was a look in her eye that screamed danger if he said one bad thing about Emily.

"You know…" he hesitated and Mia cocked an eyebrow. She was deadly. "Uh, well… she's not… up to par…"

"With who, Kevin? Who, huh? You? The twenty-one year old? Emily's not as good as the man who's older than her and more experienced than her by five years?"

"You know what I mean," Kevin breathed, "She's just… she's not Nighlok fighting material. Ask Jayden. You can tell he's not happy with her either."

"She's trying; I know that," Mia said, looking back out the window, "That's more than you can say for Mike. But I think she's hiding something."

"Like what?"

"We talked about family," Mia said. "And she said she wasn't sure her family would be waiting for her when she went home."

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know," Mia shook her head. "I asked her about it, but she just kinda closed up. She went right to sleep after that. We were bonding, I could feel it, right up until her family was mentioned."

"Maybe she doesn't have a good relationship with her parents," Kevin suggested. "It could be anything."

"She's shy, she's scared, she keeps to herself, especially with personal matters…"

"This is really bothering you, huh?"

"She's in way over her head," Mia nodded. "It's like... she's struggling to swim."

"Swim, huh?" Kevin smirked.

"Yeah. Like treading water. She can keep her head above the surface, but only just. I'm scared that at any moment this is all going to be too much for her. I barely know her but I don't want to see her drown."

Kevin looked over his shoulder once again at Emily and nodded his head.

"Yeah, I get what you mean. She's twelve, but she's trying. I guess it's not her fault she's so young."

"Sixteen," Mia corrected.

"Will it make you feel better if I help you keep an eye on her?" Kevin offered to Mia. "Between the two of us, we can make sure she doesn't drown. You know, I am a pretty good swimmer."

"I noticed," Mia chuckled, remembering her first encounter with Kevin. "Did you always used to walk around shirtless and with a cap and goggles, or was that just for me?"

Kevin gently shoved Mia, "You were staring, I saw you."

"I kind of expected a fully dressed Samurai. I was stunned."

"You liked it," Kevin teased. Mia rolled her eyes and got up from the table.

"Whatever."

-Samurai-

For the first time, Mike was bored of his video games. He turned them off and looked around the common room. He could see Mia and Kevin were talking in the kitchen but he didn't want to join them. Kevin got on his nerves and while Mia seemed to be the nicer half of the older couple, Mike just didn't feel like talking to her.

Mentor was somewhere else in the house, and truth be told, Mike didn't care. And Jayden wasn't much of a social butterfly, so Mike didn't think it would be appropriate forcing his leader to have a conversation.

He got up to search for Emily. So far, she had been the only person who he felt comfortable around. He couldn't deny she was cute, but he had also noticed she seemed very sweet and very down to earth. Something about her seemed to pull him in, making him want to learn more about her.

He spotted her sitting alone outside and he joined her. He listened as she played her flute and was disappointed when she stopped as he sat down.

"You're really good," he told her with a smile, causing her to blush. She set her flute down on her lap and stared at it.

"Thanks."

"It's cool how you can play a real instrument. I'm on expert level in guitar hero, but I couldn't tell you a thing about the real guitar."

"Guitar hero?"

"Another video game," he chuckled. He looked down at her knee, "How are you feeling? You seemed fine in training, is the knee giving you any trouble?"

"Nope," Emily straightened out her knee, "it's fine."

"Good," Mike smiled and nudged her before pointing to the kitchen window, "So, what do you think about those two?"

"Mia and Kevin?"

"Yeah."

"I don't really know Kevin yet," Emily said, "but Mia's really nice."

"I guess once you get to know her," Mike nodded his head. "Kevin's completely stuck up. I've met a couple of douchebags before, but he really sets the bar high."

"That's not very nice," Emily looked to Mike. "Just because he's different from you doesn't mean he's… you know."

"A douche?" Mike asked and Emily nodded her head.

"You guys are just having a hard time getting along. I'm sure you'll get there, though."

"He just drives me crazy. Do you know what he did? He cleaned my room."

"That's nice of him."

"Nice? He touched my stuff! I had things just the way I liked them and he decide he would change it all around, without asking me."

"That's not as nice," Emily nodded her head and swung her legs back and forth as she looked at the dirt. "How messy was your room?"

"Pretty bad, according to him. But that's how I've always lived. It's my room. It's my space. I don't tell him what his room should look like."

"But you share a room," Emily reminded Mike. "Your space is his space too."

"I don't want him touching my stuff."

"Why? Are you hiding something?"

"It's just… it's my stuff. I don't have to be hiding something for it to be private."

"I guess. But if your room was so bad that Kevin felt he had to clean it, maybe you should be a little more considerate. You know, he'll stop nagging if you stop resisting."

"He'll…" Mike turned and looked down at Emily. She had a pretty good point. He smiled at her, though she wasn't looking and didn't see it. "Thanks, Em."

"No problem."

A comfortable silence washed over the two as they sat, just enjoying each other's company. Emily wasn't a big talker, especially with these strangers she was forced to live with, but she was starting to like them. Mia reminded her of Serena and Mike… there was something special about Mike; something that drew her in.

"So," he whispered, "I'm finding this Samurai thing to be a pain in the ass. How about you?"

"Pain in the knee," she giggled, pointing to her bruised knee.

"I thought you said it was fine."

"It is fine," Emily insisted. "It still kind of hurts, but it's nothing I'm not used to."

"Used to?"

"Yeah. You know, it happens a lot and after a while you start to not care. Besides, it's not keeping me from walking, so it's okay."

"Whatever you say," Mike shrugged his shoulders, "so, does that mean you like this new life?"

"It's kind of exciting. I never really left home before, but that's a pro and a con."

"I guess it would be," Mike nodded.

"I'm not getting used to it as fast as those two, though," Emily pointed to the kitchen window, where Mia and Kevin were still talking on the other side. "It's like they were born for this."

"We were all born for this, technically," Mike chuckled.

"Yeah… right," Emily lowered her head again and looked down at the dirt. Mike noticed she seemed to be closing up again and he began to wonder why.

"You okay, Em?" he touched her hand softly, "Is there something you want to talk about?"

"What if I told you I wasn't born for this?" Emily asked Mike. "I wasn't even really supposed to be born at all."

"What do you mean?" Mike frowned. "Did you mom have one too many drinks at the bar or something?"

"No," Emily shook her head. "I was an accident, but not like that. I have a sister."

"Oh…"

"And older sister," Emily specified for Mike and she saw the look of confusion on his face. She knew he understood that the Samurai powers were passed down to the eldest child if there was more than one child in a family. It didn't make sense that Emily had her powers if she wasn't the oldest.

"So… why are you here, then?"

"Serena couldn't come," Emily didn't want to say too much, but she couldn't keep her secret inside for much longer. She figured if she spilled a little bit she would feel a little better. Mentor Ji already knew the truth, but he wasn't the most approachable person. She wasn't comfortable talking to him yet. She was comfortable with Mike though, and she trusted him the most, except for maybe Mia, but she wasn't ready to tell Mia just yet. Mike was right at that level. He wasn't close enough to her just yet, but he also wasn't a complete stranger.

"Why couldn't she?" Mike asked, wanting to learn more but he saw Emily closing up again as she shook her head.

"I don't want to say," she answered him. "She just… can't come."

"Can't, or won't."

Emily pounded her fists into the bench, "Serena would have never walked away from her responsibilities!"

"I'm sorry," Mike backed away slightly. "I didn't… I just…"

He saw tears forming in her eyes but she quickly wiped them away and took in a deep breath. Mike took her hand in his.

"Are you crying?"

"No."

"Because it's okay if you are."

"I'm not crying."

"I'm fine with it, really."

"I am not crying."

Mike moved his hand away from hers and wrapped it around her shoulder, "Do you mind if I comfort you while you don't cry, then?"

"Will you ask me what's wrong?"

"Not if you don't want me to."

Emily leaned into his chest as he wrapped his arms around her and held her warmly.

Jayden stepped outside of the house at this moment to train by himself. He was in charge of keeping the team in shape, but he also needed to make sure he was one step ahead of them, always. They were his team, and they were Samurai, but he was the red Ranger. It was his job to keep them all safe and he would be damned if he let anything happen to any of them.

But as he glanced across the yard, jealousy started to take over him. It seemed Mike and Emily were already getting closer and forming a friendship. Jayden wished he could befriend someone. It had been a long time since he had let anyone get close to him, but he knew the dangers and he would never put anyone at risk. He shook his head, clearing his mind before smacking a dummy, knocking it down with one hit.


	9. A Picture of Secrets

Kevin bit his tongue as he walked into his room and found himself stepping in what he hoped was clean underwear, but with Mike as a roommate he was never sure. He kicked the boxers aside and turned his sight away from Mike's half, keeping his focus on the cleanliness of his room as he searched for his book on The Art of Samurai Life. He had a few hours to himself and wanted to spend time studying.

Just as he found it (it didn't take long because he knew where it was), Mike walked into the room. Kevin looked at the boy in green and had to bite down harder on his tongue to keep from starting another argument with Mike.

Mike looked at Kevin nervously, as if he had something to say. He had just come in from his talk with Emily and he couldn't get her out of his mind. What she had told him about her sister was really starting to bother him. Something had happened, and it was obviously hurting her as far as he could tell, but she refused to talk. Mike wasn't sure if he should try to get her to open up and talk it out, or if it was a matter he should just drop. He figured Kevin would have an answer but hesitated on asking him. They didn't get alone, and Kevin would likely just tell him to mind his own business.

Kevin was just about to leave the room, but he felt Mike's eyes following him and he couldn't ignore them anymore. He turned to the green Ranger.

"This better be good."

Mike sat on his bed and kicked one of his shirts that was lying on the floor.

"I just talked with Emily."

"The one person in this house who doesn't find you completely repulsive…"

Mike ignored that and continued on, "I'm worried about her."

"I…" Kevin furrowed his brow, "You too?"

"Me too?" Mike asked. "You're worried?"

"Well, no… but Mia is," Kevin set his book down on his dresser and walked over to his bed. He took a seat and faced Mike. "What are you worried about?"

"She told me something today. Something that really upset her, but she wouldn't tell me why."

"Was it about her family?" Kevin asked. He saw Mike nodding his head while shooting him a curious look, so he explained, "It's what happened when Mia tried to talk to her about her family. She closed up."

"Do you think something's wrong?" Mike looked to Kevin. "Like, seriously wrong, or…"

"I don't know, and personally, I don't care," Kevin shrugged his shoulders. "I promised Mia I would keep an eye on her, and I will, but we're here for one thing and one thing only. We're Samurai. We fight the Nighlok. Everything else is irrelevant."

"So, how do birthdays work when you're a robot?" Mike asked. "Do you celebrate the day your maker creates you or the day someone finally buys you from the shop?"

"I'm not a robot."

"Beep, life of a Samurai, boop, save the world, boop, training, beep, cleanliness… uh-oh, empathy and human emotions, does not compute! Systems shutting down," Mike folded over in half, pretending he had lost power and needed to be rebooted. Kevin picked up a sock from the floor and tossed it at the green Ranger.

"I am not a robot."

"Dude, I'm talking about something serious going on with Emily, and all you can think of doing is keeping an eye on her? First of all, how is that going to help when she's already hurt, second, you're doing a shitty job at keeping an eye on her if she's hurt!"

"What do you want me to do, Mike? I barely know the kid. If there is something going on, she's not going to talk to me about it. Why should I bother getting involved?"

"So your motto is to stand by and let it happen?" Mike shook his head as he got up and walked to the door. As he walked by Kevin's dresser, he picked up the book and read the title. He scoffed and tossed it at Kevin, "Some Samurai you are. If you think my room is disgusting, try looking in the mirror."

Mike bumped passed Mia on his way out, feeling nothing but hate for the blue Ranger who had already gotten under his skin. Now that he was refusing to help, Kevin had earned a spot on Mike's list of people he wished he'd never met.

Kevin clutched the sides of his mattress tightly after Mike's insult, trying to contain his rage until he heard a knock at the door. He glanced over and saw Mia standing there, confused.

"What?"

"What did you do to deserve that?" she asked Kevin as she walked into the room and took a seat on Mike's bed. The blue Ranger shrugged.

"Nothing."

"Oh, come on, you must have done something," Mia looked around the room, "According to Mike, you make this place look spotless. You don't do that by doing nothing."

"I'm minding my own business," Kevin shrugged his shoulders.

"What did he ask you for? Was he trying to talk to you?"

"I don't know," Kevin said. "I don't care."

"You don't care?"

"We're giving up everything. We're leaving everything behind," Kevin insisted to Mia as he pulled out his dragon Zord, "We can't focus on anything except our Samurai life."

"I don't think I can do that all the time," Mia shook her head. "Look, I get saving the world is important. I've got a lot of people back home I want to protect. But I can't exactly turn myself off all the time."

"You don't get it either, Mia…"

"You can try to stop it, but personal life always touches professional life at some point," Mia said. "So, what did Mike try to talk to you about? If you're not going to help him, maybe I can."

"Emily," Kevin rolled his eyes. "He's worried about Emily."

"How worried?"

"Have you ever thought maybe you're reading into this too much?" Kevin asked. "Maybe Emily's just not ready to be a Samurai. Maybe this is too hard on her. Maybe…"

"Come here," Mia stood up and held her hand out. Kevin looked at it, then up at her.

"What?"

"Come. Follow me."

Kevin sighed and took Mia's hand and she led him to hers and Emily's room. She walked him over to Emily's side and took the notebook right off of Emily's night table. Kevin was about to tell her to respect Emily's privacy but stopped when Mia opened it up and he saw nothing but earth symbols had been traced all over the paper.

"She practices all the time," Mia said to Kevin. "For an hour before bed, all she does is practice."

"It's just the same symbols over and over again. Her basic earth symbol and earthquake. I knew more symbols than that when I was nine. It's nothing impressive."

Mia flipped over to the next page and Kevin held back a laugh, "A four year old could do a better job. What's that supposed to be?"

"Rock slide," Mia pointed to one symbol and then moved her finger to another, "Sandstorm."

"Looks like a butchered stick figure to me."

Mia slapped Kevin hard in the chest with the notebook, "Don't you get it? Emily's trying! She's trying harder than any of us."

"She's not getting very far."

"How old were you when you first started training?" Mia asked Kevin. "When did you start? I was seven."

"Same," Kevin nodded. "I started when I was seven."

"So that means we've both been training for fourteen years. How old is Emily?"

"Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously."

"Sixteen."

"So, if she started at the same age as us, she would only have nine years of practice."

"Nine years, and she's only got these two symbols mastered?" Kevin took the notebook and flipped it back to the first page. "I'm not earth, but I'm pretty sure I could master these in a week."

Mia ripped the notebook from his hand and set it down on Emily's bed, creating a slight breeze which blew up a picture that had been sitting on Emily's blankets. Mia noticed this and reached over to pick it up. She couldn't help but glance at the picture and was surprised by what she saw.

Kevin heard her gasp and turned, "What?"

Mia showed Kevin the picture, holding her thumb over part of it. She pointed to the little girl in the picture. From what Mia could tell, the little girl looked to be no older than four or five years old.

"Does she look familiar to you?"

"Emily?" Kevin narrowed his eyes and leaned in closer to get a better look. He nodded his head, "Yeah, that's definitely Emily."

"And this?" Mia removed her thumb from the other half of the picture, revealing a much older girl in the picture, her arms wrapped tightly around Emily and she was kissing Emily's cheek.

"There's no way that's her mother," Kevin said. "An aunt, maybe?"

Mia bit her lip and looked at the picture again. It was possible but there was a feeling in her gut that told her Kevin wasn't right.

"I don't know."

"Who else could it be?" Kevin asked. Mia tapped the picture with her finger as her eyes strayed to the drawer of Emily's night table. The day they moved in, Mia had seen Emily unpacking a picture album. She had said it was filled with pictures of her family and she had brought it to remind her of home.

Mia dropped the picture back on the bed and started going through the drawer to find the album. Kevin was shocked.

"Mia! That's her stuff."

Mia ignored him as she pulled out the album and looked through it, seeing more and more pictures of Emily with their mystery woman. Finally, she reached a page in the middle of the book that had writing on it.

"Love you always, little sister," Mia read to Kevin.

"Little sister?" Kevin leaned over Mia's shoulder and saw the message was signed under a picture of the mystery woman at what appeared to be Emily's first birthday party. The mystery woman was still hugging Emily tight and was helping the young Emily blow out the candle on her cake. Mia and Kevin exchanged looks.

"Emily's not the first born," Mia whispered.

"Question is: why is she here?"

The pink Ranger shrugged and quickly stuffed the photo album away before Emily walked in and saw they were snooping.

"Now are you a little more concerned about her? Do you understand why we need to worry and care?"

"I'm curious," Kevin nodded. "Why did we get Emily? Is she the best the yellow Rangers have to offer?"

"Kevin!"

"Well, what other reason could there be? Maybe we're lucky to have Emily."

"Stop with the assumptions, Kevin. You don't know the full story. You barely know a single detail."

"And whose fault is that?"

Mia glared up at the blue Ranger, "I don't know, Kev, but I guess I can see why Mike was mad at you when you didn't do anything."

She brushed past him, bumping his shoulder as she walked off. Kevin groaned loudly and turned to follow her.

"What did I do?" he called after her. "Seriously? We're Samurai! We shouldn't even be worried about stuff like this!"

As he stepped out into the hall he saw Mia turned the corner and groaned. He looked the other way and saw Jayden making his way over. He looked to the red Ranger.

"Defeating the Nighlok, that's out main focus, right?"

"You've sworn yourself to the life of the Samurai," Jayden nodded his head. "Defeat the Nighlok, or die. That's your life now."

"Thank you," Kevin sighed in relief. Finally someone agreed with him. But it didn't make him feel better about his decision. He turned away from Jayden and looked back over to where Mia had walked off. Now he was curious as to what Mia and Mike were seeing that he wasn't.


	10. Do It Or Don't Bother

Kevin couldn't sleep for several reasons. There was the obvious reason: Mike was snoring; there was the less-than-but-still-fairly-obvious reason: he couldn't sleep in a messy room; and there was a person reason: his was conflicted.

All his life his father had taught him that nothing was more important to a Samurai than his duty. He had been reminded that when he got his call to take up the powers of the blue Samurai Ranger, he was going to have to drop everything and forget about his life to serve the red Ranger and help protect the world from the Nighlok. Nothing was supposed to interfere and nothing was supposed to be more important than living, breathing, and sleeping the Samurai life.

Jayden was the perfect example. He was focused, passionate, and very disciplined. Whenever he wasn't practicing his symbols, he was training in the yard or dojo, and when he wasn't training he was practicing. The man worked like a machine, and Kevin admired that. Kevin wished he could work like that; and he tried, and he tried, but he always felt he had to work harder. He knew he needed to focus more and distance himself from his life.

But it was so damn hard. Especially when the other two Rangers continued to try and pull him back, asking him to return to a more personal life. Caring for his teammates was a big deal, and he would do anything to ensure their safety and well-being. He needed them, after all. But he couldn't let himself get too close. He couldn't let personal matters, no matter how important they seemed, get in the way of his duty.

He was already out of bed and stopped by the dojo. He heard someone training inside and knew it was Jayden. No one else would be awake at this time. He knocked on the wall as he stepped in.

"Mind if I join?" he asked. Jayden simply gestured to the katanas. Kevin picked one up and began to spar with Jayden, finding the red Ranger was a tough opponent. As Jayden struck him in the shoulder, Kevin asked: "What do you think of the others?"

"It doesn't matter," Jayden replied. "This is the team that I'll be working with. What I think won't change that."

"But… do any of us worry you?" Kevin was hit again, "Be honest."

"You all agreed to this," Jayden answered. "I gave you a choice. If you didn't want to fight the Nighlok, you could have walked away. If something happens to you…"

"Who do you think is going to fall first?"

"Emily."

Kevin furrowed his brow and let his guard down for a moment, so Jayden whacked him. He groaned and rubbed his arm but continued to look at Jayden.

"Why do you say that?"

"She shouldn't be here. I don't know how we ended up with her, but this is not the place for her."

"You agree with me, then."

"What do you think of her?"

"She's hiding something."

"I know," Jayden nodded.

"You know?" Kevin frowned. "How do you know?"

"I've known about each and every one of you since your parents arrived here. I know Emily's not a Samurai."

"Well, I mean, she is, technically, but…"

"She's not a member of this team," Jayden shook his head and whacked Kevin harder this time. "The only reason I'm keeping her is because we need the Ape. If she leaves, we can't form the Megazord."

"I can't wait to try that out," Kevin smirked. Jayden hit him again for losing focus. Kevin bowed slightly, "Sorry."

Jayden ended the spar there and put his sword away. He looked at the time and saw it was late.

Kevin had one more question, "I'm doing the right thing, right? As Samurai, we give ourselves completely to this life. Whatever happened before, we don't worry about it, right?"

"You should be focused on the Nighlok," Jayden nodded. "Nothing matters if they win."

"Alright," Kevin started to leave the dojo, "Goodnight, then."

He headed to his room but something still didn't feel right. As he passed by the door to the girls' room, he couldn't help but open it slightly and peek inside. Mia was sound asleep, but Emily was sitting up under her blankets and Kevin could see a light shining, as if she had a flashlight with her. He wondered what she was doing. Suddenly, there was a gust of wind and sand started falling over the sides of Emily's bed. Kevin assumed she had just created a sandstorm.

"No…" he heard Emily moan and pound her fists against something hard. "Not that!"

He waited a few moments before the blankets looked like they were being beaten from the inside and Kevin heard a small shriek from Emily as she threw the blankets off and pushed rocks out of her bed. Kevin didn't want Emily to see him, so he quietly closed the door and leaned against the wall. He heard footsteps inside the room and hid in the shadows as the door opened again and Emily stepped out. She didn't see him as she turned to the kitchen, but he saw her and he thought he saw some blood on her face.

He groaned, unable to let her go without making sure he was okay. He yawned and stretched, pretending like he was just coming out of his room for a glass of water. Emily turned around when she heard him.

"Kevin?"

"Hey, Emily," he smiled like he hadn't seen anything. "What are you doing up?"

"I… uh…"

Now Kevin could act like he had seen the blood, "What's on your forehead?" he asked, reaching just above her eye. He touched it, "Emily, are you bleeding?"

Emily pulled away from him and touched her cut, "No…"

"Come," he turned her to the kitchen and flicked on the light. He got a better look at the cut and saw it was nothing to worry about. He led her to the sink and grabbed a cloth to start cleaning out the cut. As he did this he asked her how it happened. Emily shrugged her shoulders, saying she didn't know. He looked her in the eyes, "Emily…"

"I'll fix it," Emily tried to grab the cloth from him to take care of herself but he shook his head.

"I can do it," as he finished cleaning out the cut he reached into the cupboard and pulled out a small first aid kit. He continued to treat the wound and closed it up himself.

"How do you know how to do this?" Emily asked him as he finished up.

"You don't think my dad would teach me how to be a Samurai and ignore basic first aid, do you?" Kevin asked with a chuckle. "I think that's good. You sure you don't want to tell me what happened?"

Emily touched her forehead and then looked up at Kevin. He had done a good job, much better than anything he could have done by himself.

"It doesn't matter. Thanks."

"Emily…"

"Don't worry about it," Emily left the kitchen, but not without bumping into Jayden first as the red Ranger was making his way to his room for bed. Jayden looked and noticed the cut on her forehead, but he didn't say anything and let Emily head off to her room. Kevin washed off his hands and looked at Jayden.

"Did you see the…?"

"Yes."

"Aren't you worried?"

"Why should I be?" Jayden asked. "If I needed to worry that would mean she wasn't okay. If she's going to be a Samurai, she can't let little things like that hurt her. Stop the Nighlok or die. If she's not cut out for this…"

"Aren't you being a little hard on her?" Kevin frowned and finally realised what Mike and Mia were trying to tell him. He hadn't been able to hear how cold he had been until he had seen someone else behaving the same way. "Jayden, I think she's really trying."

"People who try mean nothing. Do it, or don't bother."

"Jayden…"

"I'm going to bed. You should do the same. You're no good to this team if you're tired, and we're already down one Samurai."

"Down one Samurai?" Kevin frowned. "I thought we were a team of five."

"We're supposed to be."

"Last I counted, we were five."

"Emily's not the yellow Ranger."

Kevin remembered the picture and the message he had seen. He remembered Emily had an older sister and he was curious as to why Emily was here and not her older sister, but just because their teammate was younger than they assumed she would be, didn't mean she wasn't part of the team.

"Jayden…"

"Goodnight, Kevin," Jayden turned and walked away. Kevin frowned as he watched him go and then looked at the first aid kit. After what Mia had shown him, and what he had just seen in Emily's room, he knew the yellow Ranger was trying hard to catch up to everyone else, but Jayden still seemed to dismiss her, treating all her training and her efforts like they were nothing.

Now Kevin really wanted to get to the bottom of this.


	11. Secret's Spilled

Kevin always hated apologies, especially when he had to give them.

Mike had slept in (even after Kevin had woken him up) and had to skip breakfast so he could make training on time and avoid punishment drills. It was for that reason that he was eating alone now, giving Kevin the perfect opportunity to talk to him and Mia in private. Emily was in her room alone, likely practicing her symbol power on her own, and Jayden was still training in the yard. Mentor was nowhere to be found, but Kevin was sure he was working on something important and wouldn't be bothering the Rangers for another few hours.

"Kevin, what did you want to say?" Mia asked as she was dragged into the kitchen by Kevin.

"I knew it," Mike called, pointing his spoon at Kevin, "You know what happened to Emily's forehead. It was Jayden, wasn't it? You just didn't want to tattle when he was right there."

To say Mike and Mia had been worried when they saw Emily's cut would be an understatement. Mike hadn't stopped asking her who had hurt her all morning, and Mia had insisted she take a look at it and that Emily stay in sight so they could monitor her for signs of a concussion, and both Mia and Mike had been slightly angry with her for not telling them when it happened. They were both very concerned for their youngest teammate and were only trying to keep her safe and do what was best for her.

"That's not it," Kevin shook his head. He knew what had happened but that wasn't important. "Look, guys, I know it's been a bit of a hard ass but…"

"A bit?" Mike said through a mouthful of cereal, "Dude, do you not remember touching my personal stuff and hiding it?"

"Organising," Kevin corrected. "And I know. I'm sorry. I can't say you and I won't continue to fight, Mike, but I'll try and keep my own problems to myself."

"So I can leave my clothes on the floor?"

"Not a chance," Kevin shook his head. The boys glared at each other for a moment and Mia rolled her eyes.

"You were saying, Kevin…"

"Right," Kevin shifted his gaze back to Mia, "Look, I get what you guys were saying earlier… about Emily."

At this moment, Emily began to make her way to the kitchen. She had been hit hard by her own symbol and she was sure her elbow was going to have a nasty bruise on it, especially if she didn't ice it with peas soon. She heard Kevin mentioning her name and realised he, Mia and Mike were talking about her behind her back. She remained out of sight, but stuck near the doorway to the kitchen, eavesdropping on the conversation. If the conversation was centered on her, she had a right to listen.

Kevin continued, unaware that Emily was listening, "We're supposed to leave our lives behind, but that's not always easy and for some of you, that's hard to do. If Emily has a problem that's haunting her, we need to figure it out. We can't just sit on it."

"Wait; is this you saying you've finally left the dark side?" Mike asked Kevin. "You finally understand that human beings have feelings?"

"Yes, Mike," Kevin nodded his head. "Humans have feelings and some pasts can't just be buried and forgotten about. If Emily's in trouble, we need to save her."

In the hallway, Emily looked down at her elbow. She didn't want to be saved, she wanted to help. She wanted to do what Serena would have done. She didn't need her team taking baby steps so she could keep up.

But they were worried about her. They wouldn't have worried about Serena. In fact, Serena would have likely been worrying about them. Emily was impressed with her teammates' skills, but they were all behind compared to Serena. If they had gotten Serena for a yellow Ranger, they would have been forced to improve to catch up to her, something that would have proven to be very useful in the fight against the Nighlok.

But they didn't get Serena, they were stuck with Emily. Little Emily who needed rescuing in her first fight, was injured by her own teammate while training and hurt herself with her symbol power twice, and they had only just started their long battle against the Nighlok.

Emily extended her elbow, testing her range of motion. It was still pretty good, and while it would bruise, it was nothing Emily wasn't used to, but at this rate, it was only a matter of time before something serious happened. She couldn't burden her friends by having them worry about her safety and the safety of the world. Serena would have never let that happen.

"We don't know the full story, yet," Mia reminded the boys. "I mean, she could just be adjusting."

"No," Mike shook his head, "There's something. She… uh…"

"What?" Kevin asked. Mike was going to say something, he could tell, but the green Ranger was hesitating. If he knew something, it was best if he just spilled, "You can say it, Mike. If it helps us help Emily, it's for the best."

"I…"

Mia looked to Mike, then to Kevin and remembered what they had recently learned about Emily. She bit her lip, "Mike, we might already know what you're going to say. Just spill."

"I don't know."

"Mike, we need to know all we can to help Emily," Kevin tried to persuade the green Ranger. "We won't tell her what you say, and we're only doing this to help her. I promise."

Mike took a deep breath and closed his eyes, "She has a sister."

Kevin frowned, "How do you know about that?"

"How do you?" Mike asked.

"I trusted you!" Emily's little voice screamed, startling the three Rangers and they turned around to see her standing in the doorway, visibly upset and her glare pointed straight at Mike.

"Em…"

"And you…" Emily turned to Mia and Kevin, "How did you know?"

"Emy, we just…"

"No… I don't care!" Emily shouted. Tears filled her eyes but she wiped them way while trying to stay strong. Her body trembled from holding in her emotions and she looked like she was about to burst, but she held it all in. "I trusted you!"

"Emily, we're so sorry," Mia reached out to touch Emily's arm but the yellow Ranger pulled away roughly, knocking herself off balance and onto the floor. Mia tried to help her up off the floor, but someone else beat her to it.

Mentor Ji gently lifted Emily back to her feet and brushed her off. He looked her in the eyes, asking her if she was okay. He had heard the screaming from his room and had come to check it out. Emily threw herself into his arms, burying her face in his chest. He hugged her and looked to the other three Rangers.

"What happened?"

"Mentor, we didn't mean to…" Kevin stammered, "We just… we thought, we…"

"Did you tell them?" Emily looked up at Mentor. "Did you tell them I had a sister?"

"Of course not," Mentor shook his head. He glared at the older Rangers and pointed to the common room, "I think it's best if we all sit down and discuss this. Kevin, would you mind bringing Jayden in?"

"I…"

"Let me rephrase that," Mentor said, "Kevin, go get Jayden."

"Yes, Mentor," Kevin bowed his head and hurried off to get his leader. Mentor again asked Emily if she was okay and then led her to the common room.

Mia and Mike exchanged worried looks as they followed. Their intentions were good, but that wasn't what counted right now. They knew they had hurt Emily and this could have sent them back light-years in their mission to help.

When Jayden and Kevin joined them in the common room, Mentor glared at each and every one of them while he stood over Emily, his arms on her shoulder.

"I thought you were all more responsible than this," his tone indicated he was very angry. "I thought your parents raised you better," his gaze switched to Jayden, "I thought I had done a better job."

"Mentor, that's not fair…"

"Silence!" Mentor shouted which silenced Kevin and scared the others into keeping their mouths shut until they were addressed personally. Mentor gently squeezed Emily's shoulders, "What happened?" he asked her softly.

"They know," Emily glared at her team. "I told Mike I had a sister and trusted that he wouldn't tell anyone. I told him because I trusted him and he knew that."

"Emily…"

"No!" Emily shouted to Mike, "You knew I didn't want you telling anyone."

Mike shrank into his seat.

Emily looked up at Mentor, "I don't know how Mia and Kevin found out. I didn't tell them, and if you didn't tell them."

Mentor's eyes fell on Jayden. He was the only other person who knew. On one hand, if Jayden had spilled Emily's secret, it would have meant he was socialising with his team, but on the other hands, it wasn't his place to share that secret.

Jayden shook his head, "I did not say a word, Mentor."

"He didn't," Mia whispered softly. "Kevin and I found out."

"How?" Mentor asked. "How did you magically come across information this personal to Emily?"

"We just…"

When Mentor saw Mia was hesitating to come clean he turned to Kevin, "Well, seeing as you're so passionate about spilling secrets, why don't you tell us what Mia's trying to hide?"

"I…"

"It doesn't feel good when the tables are turned, does it?"

Kevin shook his head, "We're sorry, Emily."

"You shouldn't be," Emily said.

"So… does that mean all is forgiven?"

"THIS IS MY BUSINESS!" Emily shouted. "Mia was right; you don't know the full story! You don't know and now you never will."

"Emily…"

"NO!" Emily screamed to Mia. She leaped off her stool and ran to her bedroom, pushing back the tears. Now more than ever she wanted to cry. She felt so alone. But she remembered the promise she made to herself. She needed to stay strong. Samurai weren't crybabies.

She threw herself onto her bed and hugged her stuffed ape tightly.

"I want to go home," she told the ape.

Back in the common room, Mia, Kevin, and Mike held their heads in shame.

"We weren't…" Mia breathed but knew it wasn't worth it. She had only wanted to help, but she had hurt Emily, point blank.

"Is she going to quit?" Kevin asked Mentor. "I wouldn't blame her if she did."

"I doubt Emily will quit," Mentor shook his head.

"Can't her sister take her place?" Kevin asked. "I mean, she is older and wouldn't…"

"We should have gotten Serena," Jayden said, glaring at Mentor Ji, "I don't know why we ended up with Emily. Serena was supposed to be the yellow Ranger."

"Then why is Emily here?" Mia asked. "If you were expecting Serena, why did Emily show up?"

"I'm still waiting for Serena to tell us this was all a prank," Jayden said.

Mentor pointed to the red Ranger's bedroom, "That is enough, Jayden. Serena is not coming. There is no prank. Emily is your yellow Ranger."

Jayden got up and left the room per Mentor's request. The older man stared at the three remaining Rangers.

"Why did you do this?"

"We were worried," Mike said. "Emily seems to be having a hard time. We just wanted to…"

"You had no idea who she is, where she comes from, or what her upbringing was like. You barely know her and you thought you would make it your business to meddle in hers?"

"We are so sorry, Mentor…"

"Why are you apologizing to me?" Mentor asked Mia. "You have done no wrong to me."

He walked behind Mike and Kevin and placed his hands on their shoulders, "For what it's worth, I understand your intentions. I too worry about Emily. But had you been a little more patient, she would have spoken to you in time."

"Is she okay, Mentor?" Mike looked Mentor directly in the eyes. "I mean, aside from what we've just done. She's so… nervous and shy and withdrawn. She said she was used to pain when I asked about her knee. She wasn't being… you know…?"

"No," Mentor shook his head. "Emily comes from a very loving home."

"Too loving?" Kevin asked and again Mentor shook his head.

"Emily will tell you when and if she feels ready. For now, I suggest you think of ways to apologize. Preferably before a Nighlok attacks."

Kevin nodded his head and got up to leave the room and find somewhere quiet to think. Mike did the same.

Mia looked down the hallway to her bedroom and then to Mentor. He nodded to her and she got up and walked to her room. She knocked on the door, waiting to hear a reply from Emily. None came but Mia still walked in anyways.

She saw the yellow Ranger lying face down on her bed, hugging her ape toy tightly in her arms. Mia sighed loudly and sat down on the side of the bed. She reached out to brush Emily's hair but then decided against it. The yellow Ranger was still angry with her.

"Emy…"

"Don't call me that."

"I'm sorry. I know that doesn't make up for what I did, but I didn't want to hurt you."

"You did."

"I was just worried about you."

"I don't want you to."

"Emy…"

"Don't call me that!"

"You don't ever have to talk to me again, Emily," Mia whispered sadly, lowering her head, "but if there is something bothering you and if you ever need to talk about it, I will listen, and I will do anything I can to help you. I promise."

"How can I trust you?"

"You can't. Maybe you shouldn't."

"Then go away."

"I'm so sorry…"

"Then why did you do it?" Emily sat up and glared at Mia, "You obviously found out intentionally…"

"No, I… well…"

"If you're sorry then you shouldn't have done it and you know it was wrong."

"Emily…"

"I used to think you were just like her," Emily looked down at her bed. "You made me feel safe here, you and Mike. Now you do this…"

"I'm…"

"I thought I was going to get her back," Emily whispered. Mia looked up at Emily, eyes filled with tears as she heard this.

"Get her back?" she asked. "Emy… did she die?"

"Not yet," Emily shook her head. She didn't know why she wanted to tell Mia. She didn't trust her, but it felt right. Now felt like the moment. Maybe it was because Emily wanted Mia to feel just as bad as she did, or maybe it was just because some higher power decided now was right. Either way, Emily was going to let it out to a member of her team.

Besides, it would help her see if she could trust Mia again or not. If the others found out, Emily would know who leaked.

"What… Emy…"

"She's dying," Emily said. "By the time I go home, she might be dead."

Mia gasped; her hand flew to her mouth, "Emily… I…"

"Tell a soul and I'm leaving," Emily glared hatefully at Mia. The pink Ranger responded by launching herself into Emily and wrapping her up tight in her arms.

"Emily, I'm so sorry."

"I'm still mad at you,' Emily said as she wrapped her arms around Mia, accepting the comfort but the rage still burned in her stomach.

"Hate me," Mia nodded. "If it makes it easier, hate me. Emily, I…"

"Just stop talking," Emily closed her eyes. "It's not you I'm hugging."

"I'm so sorry…"


	12. Samurai Life

Kevin knew of only one way to clear his head, and that was through training. He beat a punching bag with kicks as the scene played over and over in his head. He knew he had been hard on Emily when he first joined the team. When he looked at her, he saw nothing but a little girl, not a Samurai. She was just a kid. She was someone who was going to hold the team back.

But Mike and Mia had seen more in her and that had shown Kevin what he was missing. While Emily was very far behind in her training, she was working constantly to try and catch up. She was just like him in that sense. He was a Samurai, born and raised. He couldn't remember a single moment in his life where he hadn't been training for something special: Samurai or Olympic swimmer.

He beat the bag again, as Emily's hurt screams echoed through his head and he realised what he had done wrong. Instead of asking her if there was something bothering he, he had gone behind her back and dug up secrets (well, Mia had done the digging), and he had forced Mike to give up information that Emily had trusted him with. He couldn't blame the yellow Ranger for being hurt.

Mike was leaning against the wall. He had gone to the kitchen to fix himself a smoothie and then came to join Kevin in the dojo to think in peace; only for Kevin it wasn't peaceful. As Mike reached the end of his smoothie, he had to suck up the contents at the bottom through a straw which made a loud slurping noise. He noticed Kevin kept glancing over, but he didn't bother quieting down. He knew he should have been thinking of ways to apologize to Emily, but he wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to drive his Samurai rival crazy.

Kevin didn't say a word about the noise, though, so Mike decided to distract him another way.

"Hey Kev, do you ever take a break?"

"Every second that you're not training is a second wasted," Kevin kicked the bag again.

"Okay, don't blow a gasket," Mike could have sworn there was a vein in Kevin's neck that was going to pop. He was so close to irritating Kevin to the max. He slurped up his drink again, eyeing the blue Ranger. Kevin finally stopped his training and glared at Mike, who just continued to sip and slurp. After a moment, Mike smiled, set his empty cup down and walked up on the map. "Alright, let's see if your practice makes perfect."

Kevin smirked. They didn't have swords, so this was finally going to be his chance to hit Mike without being scolded. Mike had a playful stance as he challenged Kevin, and the blue Ranger grinned. This was going to be so easy.

But the next thing Kevin knew, Mike had his arm wrapped around his neck in a lock. Kevin tried and tried, but couldn't get out. Mike chuckled.

"Surrender?"

Kevin squirmed, "Never."

"Surrender now?" Mike asked as he squeezed a little harder. Kevin groaned.

"Fine," Mike's arms dropped from around his shoulders. "How did you do that?"

"The sword is so last century," Mike shrugged his shoulders. "There's nothing more satisfying than punching the lights out of someone."

Kevin shook his head and dropped onto the mat. He leaned back slightly.

"Have you thought of anyway to make this up to Emily?"

"What?"

"We really hurt Emily back there," Kevin pointed down the hallway to the girls' room. "We owe her an apology."

"We owe her more than that," Mike said, "but dude, if you hadn't of forced me I would have taken her secret to the grave. I don't know how you or Mia found out, but…"

"We saw her sister in a picture book," Kevin lowered his head. "We kind of snooped."

"Seriously?" Mike asked. "After everything we went through when you cleaned up my stuff, you still snooped?"

"Mia snooped," Kevin corrected, "but… I guess I didn't do much to stop her."

"I'll say," Mike nodded.

"Have you thought of a way to apologize to Emily?"

"There's nothing we can do," Mike shrugged his shoulders. "I've thought long and hard about this. Saying we're sorry isn't going to magically fix things. I've screwed up enough times to know."

"That, I believe," Kevin chuckled. Mike glared at him.

"Like you're so perfect. I admit, you have me beat with a sword, but at least I last longer than a minute."

"I need more practice…"

"Or, more fun," Mike shrugged.

Kevin shook his head and groaned before both boys heard footsteps from the hallway. They looked up and saw a teary-eyed Mia stepping into the dojo. Emily had just told her about her sick sister and Mia couldn't stop the tears from coming. She couldn't imagine what Emily's was going through. She remembered how badly it had hurt when she heard her grandfather had died, but she had no idea what it was like to watch someone she loved so much slowly pass away, especially when their death was taking so long to arrive.

"Are you okay?" Mike asked. Mike took a seat between him and Kevin on the floor and shook her head.

"We owe her big time."

"We know…"

"No, you don't," Mia shook her head and looked to both boys, "Trust me, you don't know a thing."

"Any ideas on what we could do?" Kevin asked. "Mike's got nothing and I'm not really good at the apologizing thing."

"Yeah, look at what happened with your last apology," Mike pointed out with a slight chuckle, "you pissed our yellow Ranger off and probably permanently divided out team. It's too bad, too. I actually liked Emily."

"Same here," Mia nodded. "When I first saw her I was a little disappointed she wasn't closer to my age, but…"

"You liked her from the start," Kevin rolled his eyes. "Don't lie."

"I never said I didn't," Mika shook her head. "When my mom told me there was going to be one other girl on the team, I thought she would be… well…"

"Older?" Mike asked.

"Apparently she was supposed to be," Kevin said. "I don't know why Emily's here, but the Samurai powers are supposed to be passed onto the firstborn. Emily's sister should have been here, and she seems older than all of us."

Mia lowered her head, "Yeah… Serena…"

"But hey, at least you actually like her," Mike glared at Kevin. "We still can't see eye to eye."

"You two are opposites, and until you learn to accept your differences you're never going to get along."

"Or, we could get our own rooms and new training partners," Kevin suggested. Suddenly, both his and Mike's hands shot up in the air. "I call Emily!" both boys cried out. Mia glared at the two of them.

"I'm right here!"

Mike shrugged his shoulders. Kevin looked to Mia nervously.

"Uh… nothing personal, Mia," he said as he played with his hands, "It's just… uh… well… Emily's training all the time… you know… like me. I just think it would be a better match."

"Yahuh," Mia rolled her eyes, "doesn't matter, anyways. I've got Emily and neither of you are going to train with her. Besides, you'll both break her."

"I'll be gentle," Mike whined. He grabbed Mia's arms, "Please, please, please can we switch?"

"No."

Mike crossed his arms, "You suck, Mia."

"Doesn't he piss you off?" Kevin chuckled, nudging Mia slightly. She shook her head.

"Only a little more than you do."

"Ha!" Mike pointed to Kevin and laughed, "You piss Mia off too!"

"I can still put up with you," Mia said. The boys looked at her.

"How can you put up with him?" they each asked, pointing to the other. Mia rolled her eyes. She pointed to Kevin.

"You're too serious," she turned to Mike, "and you're too goofy. When one of you start pissing me off, I just go to the other."

Mike nodded, "You're like, perfect middle, huh?"

"Being a Samurai is important," Mia said, "but I also want a normal life… I…"

"Do you have a secret too?" Mike asked as Mia looked down.

"No… I kind of always wanted to… you know… get married, find my prince charming," she looked up as she said this and saw Kevin looking at her with a small grin. She smiled back and then turned to Mike. "I'm hoping we can defeat Master Xandred for good and I can start a normal family and be a normal woman."

"Normal?" Mike shook his head, "No way. I want excitement."

"What are you going to do when this is done?" Mia turned away from Mike and asked Kevin.

"Hopefully I'll be able to start training again and qualify for the Olympics. I'll probably miss 2012, but maybe I can swim in the next ones."

"Swimming," Mia blushed, remembering her first encounter with Kevin.

"Yeah," Kevin began to blush as well. Mike looked between the two of the, a slightly disgusted look on his face before he got up.

"I know I said we owe Emily more than an apology, but I'm going to at least do something to show her I care," he walked off, leaving the pink and blue Rangers alone. If they were going to flirt, he didn't want to be there.

He slowly made his way to Emily's bedroom, running over his apology in his head as he walked. He knew it wasn't going to be enough, and he might never win back her friendship, but he had to try and make her feel better. He didn't like seeing her upset.

He found the courage to knock on her door and waited for an answer. He waited a while but there was no response.

"Em?" he called through the door and knocked again, "Emily? I'm so sorry. You probably don't want to talk to me right now but… Em?"

Still no response.

"Okay, I get it. I screwed up big time. I didn't want to tell them, but I was just sorry worried for you. You're not really an open book and… what am I saying, that's no excuse. You didn't do anything wrong. I did. Call me an ass, or a jerk, or a two-faced son of a bitch. I'll take it."

Still he heard nothing.

"Call me something," he knocked again, "Em, you in there? Emily? I'm… I'm coming in."

He slowly opened the door and looked around the room. He saw a note on her bed sitting next to a picture of Emily with her sister. Mike smiled when he saw Emily happy, even though she was only in the picture and she was much younger. He loved her smile and the way her eyes shone when she was excited. He held the picture gently between his fingers and then turned to the note.

"_Her name is Serena. She was supposed to be the yellow Ranger, but when I was eight she started getting sick. Mom started training me then, just in case I needed to take her place. A year ago, the doctor told us she only had a little while left. There was nothing more they could do for her. Any day now, she's going to die. That's why I'm here and she's not. I'm sorry."_

Mike couldn't believe what he was reading and went over Emily's words again as a tear fell onto the paper. As he finished reading for a second time, he noticed Emily's room was empty. She was nowhere in sight and a few of her belongings were missing. Dread washed through him and he took off back to the dojo. He slipped and slid to a stop, crashing between Mia and Kevin.

"Mike!" Mia cried in annoying. Mike handed her the note. She read it and sighed before passing it to Kevin. The letter wasn't address to anyone, so she figured Emily had left it for anyone to read.

"Her sister's…"

"Dying!" Mike finished for Kevin and nodded his head.

"Where did you get this?" Kevin gestured to the note. Mike pointed to the girls' room.

"On her bed."

"Where's Emily?" Mia asked. "She told me she was going to nap."

"I guess she changed her mind," Mike shrugged. "She's not in her room."

Mia jumped to her feet and raced through the house. The boys followed her and they all stopped when they found Jayden in the common room.

"Where's Emily?" Mia asked. Jayden pointed out the window.

"I saw her walking off about an hour ago."

"Where?" Mike asked. "Where did she go? Did she say?"

"I didn't bother asking," Jayden shrugged. "I just thought…"

"You saw her leaving on her own and you didn't think to ask where she was going or if she wanted company."

"She's a sitting duck on her own!" Kevin cried.

"She's a Samurai, she knows the risks. She swore herself to this life."

"No she didn't," Mia shook her head. "She wasn't there when we promised to be Samurai."

"By accepting the morpher she…"

"I don't have time for this," Mike stormed out of the house, Kevin and Mia were right behind him. Jayden rolled his eyes.


	13. The Search For The Yellow Ranger

A thousand possibilities raced through his head of where Emily could be and what could have happened to her by now, but Mike didn't want to think of that as he raced through the city streets, searching high and low for his youngest teammate. He could hear Kevin and Mia calling her name frantically as they ran behind him. He wanted to shout, but he knew it wouldn't do any good. It would only alert Emily of their presence if they were approaching her and it would likely only send her further away. She had run away from them and right now she had no reason to come back.

"C'mon, Em," he whispered to himself, "don't do this to us."

"Emily!" Kevin shouted, but his voice cracked. He stopped running and rubbed his neck in pain. Mia stopped a few paces ahead of him and grabbed Mike's arm, pulling him to a stop. Kevin looked to his teammates, "She could be anywhere by now."

"Why didn't Jayden go after her?" Mia asked. "She's his teammate; he should care for her, right?"

"He doesn't work like you do, Mia," Mike shook his head. "He's a cold-hearted son of a bitch. He's done nothing but look down at us since we got here."

"He's been cold," Kevin rephrased Mike's statement, "but he's our Samurai leader. He knows what's best."

"Then why isn't he out here with us looking for Emily?" Mike glared up at the blue Ranger. "Is it really best that she leaves the team?"

"No, but…"

"Then stop kicking his ass and find Emily," Mike shouted. "Every second that we're not looking for Emily is a second where she could get hurt!"

Kevin looked down at Mike, "I'm worried for her too."

By now they were standing with their faces only inches apart. Mia could only roll her eyes as they glared hatefully at each other. She found it oddly annoying how they were both arguing over a matter they both seemed to agree on. Emily needed to be found. She placed her hand on the back of their heads and smacked them together.

"OW!" both boys groaned, pulling away from each other and rubbing their foreheads.

"There, something in common," Mia said, "you both have hard heads and you both want to find Emily. How about putting those heads to good use?"

"You didn't have to clonk so hard," Mike groaned. "I think you killed a few cells."

"Impossible," Kevin glanced at the green Ranger, "That would mean you had some to begin with."

Mia held her up hands again and the boys flinched, terrified she would bump them together again. Mia glared at them.

"You're both impossible."

"But…"

Mia placed her hand on Mike's forehead and shoved him into the dirt. Mike rolled backwards and stopped with his head between his knees and his back on the ground. He groaned loudly and glared between his legs at Mia, "Okay, not arguing with you."

He uncurled himself and laid in the grass for a moment, trying to get his mind back on task. Normally he avoided this much stress. He hated being pressured to do something, especially for someone else. Only a little while ago, if one of his friends had gone off on their own, Mike would have stayed at home and waited for them to decide to come back on their own. He never would have bothered to search for them.

But he was already starting to change. He was still very unfocused when it came to his Samurai training, but he had lost his over-confident attitude. He was far behind Jayden, Kevin and even Mia in every aspect of his training except hand-to-hand combat, which didn't seem to be very valued. Already he was feeling pushed to work a little harder on his symbols and his swordsmanship.

And then there was Emily, his first and so far his only true friend on the team. He barely knew her (apparently he didn't know her at all), but he already wanted to be a better person for her. He still enjoyed his video games, but they weren't as fun unless he was playing with her, and if she wasn't playing, he wanted to be doing what she was doing.

He would admit to having a crush, but Emily was his teammate and there was no way these feelings were right. He also thought it didn't matter how he felt. There was no way sweet, innocent Emily would ever fall for guy like him. But that didn't seem to matter much. As much as Mike wanted to always be with her, he valued her happiness over everything else.

Which was why this was killing him; she was unhappy and alone and he was part of the reason why. He let out a deep breath and looked up, across the grass. His eyes fell on a young woman sitting on a city bench and he immediately recognised the blond, curly hair and the yellow shirt. He rolled over onto his stomach and pushed himself up.

"Emily!" he called her name and darted over to her, forgetting to look both ways as he crossed the street, forcing drivers to slam on the breaks. Mia and Kevin were right behind him.

"Emily! What the hell?" Kevin asked as they reached the bench she was sitting on. She hugged her knees to her chest and looked to her teammates. Kevin shook his head, "you can't run off like that!"

"How did you guys find me?" Emily asked, looking at each of the three with big eyes. Mia shook her head and knelt down in front of the yellow Ranger.

"Does it matter?" she asked. She touched Emily's arm, "you should come home. It's not safe to run off like this. What if you had gotten hurt?"

"You guys obviously don't care about hurting me," Emily whispered. "If you did, you wouldn't have done what you did."

"We're so sorry, Emy," Mia looked down.

Mike scanned the area. He was thankful he had found Emily but he wanted to know what brought her here. If there was something important about this place that pulled her to hide out here. He noticed a bus stop right by the corner and that's when he clued in that Emily was sitting at the bus stop and she had her bag of personal items with her.

"Were you going home, Em?" he asked her. Emily looked up at him and then shook her head.

"I got lost," she whispered. "The city's so big…"

"Yeah, it'll do that to you," Mia smiled. "You don't have to like us, Emy, but let us take you home. You'll be safe there."

"That's all we want," Kevin said, sitting next to Emily. "We just want you safe. That's why we were so worried about you and why we did what we did. We thought you were maybe in some kind of trouble."

"I'm not."

"We know," Mike sighed loudly. "We got your note. We know about Serena. Emily, I'm so sorry. Going through that and leaving her… it must have been hell, it must still be hell. It's no wonder you were so up and down."

"We shouldn't have snooped," Mia said. "We should have just waited for you to be ready to talk. We're so sorry."

"I'm not ready to forgive you," Emily shook her head. "You guys are just like…"

Emily didn't get to finish her thought as all their Samuraizers went off. The Rangers picked up their morphers and stared curiously before Jayden's voice came on the other end.

"A Nighlok attack in the city," he said, "Meet me there. Your Samuraizers should give you the exact location."

"Do you want to fight?" Kevin asked Emily. She nodded her head.

"I promised Serena I would make her proud. She wouldn't run away from a fight and neither will I."

"Atta girl," Mike smiled.

"But as soon as this is over," Emily growled, "I want to be alone."


	14. Jayden's Dedication

_Author's Note: Anonymous reviews are no longer permitted on any of my stories. After a recent review from Irene on "The Battle Continues" I have decided to remove that privilege. Unless someone here is willing to pay me a fortune to update daily, I will update when I have the chapter ready and when I have the time. I don't care how cranky you get, I care about doing what I love and sharing it with those who appreciate it._

_For those of you patient enough to wait for the updates, I thank you. I know you understand it's not always possible to update everyday._

* * *

><p>The street had already been torn apart by the time Jayden arrived the fight the Nighlok. He breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was feeling like it was supposed to; him against the bad guys. He didn't have to worry about putting innocent lives in danger. There were no teammates counting on him to keep them safe. Just himself.<p>

He couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to them. He didn't want to lose his friends like he lost his father. He had only been a child when his father passed but he still remembered the pain and there was no way he was living through it again, and no way was he going to let anyone close to him suffer like his father had.

"There he is!" he heard Kevin shout and his moment of bliss was over as his team morphed and joined the battle, putting themselves in harm's way for him. He growled to himself, but continued to fight the Nighlok, trying to keep the stronger monster away from his team.

He couldn't help but noticed his team as they fought. Kevin was a master swordsman already, and when he summoned his hydro bow he had perfect accuracy. Had Jayden not been so worried, he would have truly valued Kevin as a teammate.

Mia was just a strong with her Sky Fan as she was with a sword as she ripped through the Moogers with grace and skill, proving she was a dedicated Samurai in her own right and that she had been training for this for years.

Mike, though his style was a little reckless, seemed to be having no problem with his own set of Moogers, and even seemed to be helping Emily out when he could. Jayden clenched his fists as he watched the yellow Ranger.

"Where the hell is Serena?" he asked himself. Emily was an alright Samurai, but Jayden knew there was better and his team deserved better. Serena had been in training just as long as he had, and would have been on the same level as him, strengthening the team. Emily pulled it down and risked putting the entire team in danger.

As that thought crossed through his head, and as he was about to swing his Fire Smashed at the Nighlok, he noticed a spinning yellow weapon flying his way. He dropped his fire smasher and jumped back, avoiding Emily's Earth Splicer with a loud gasp.

The Nighlok took advantage of Jayden's shock and momentary lack of focus and swung at Jayden with his own weapon, sending the red Ranger flying into the wall of a crumbling building.

"Jayden!" Emily screamed, racing to his side. Her attack had been deadly, and while it had managed to nearly take Jayden's head off, she had destroyed her little group of Moogers and was free to check up on the Ranger she had nearly just killed. She fell to her knees next to him. She didn't want to hurt her teammates, even if she was mad at them. And she wasn't even mad at Jayden. He hadn't done anything wrong in her eyes. He had been expecting Serena and had every right to be upset and disappointed in Emily. She tried hard to take her sister's place, but continued to mess up. Serena would have never lost control of her weapon.

The Nighlok didn't stop there. Now, not only did he have the red Ranger in line for destruction, but yellow as well. He powered up and fired another attack at the pair. Emily, feeling guilty, stepped in front of Jayden to take the hit.

Mia, Kevin and Mike all saw this happening and quickly raced over to help their friends but it was too late. The Nighlok's blast hit them all, sending them to their knees. Jayden had been the only one completely shielded by the attack and when the smoke cleared he noticed he was the only one still morphed. The others all lay around him. Three of them were moving and trying to get up. He watched the Nighlok walk away to continue his destruction further down the street. Jayden, though exhausted and beat up, wasn't going to let that happen, and he wasn't going to let his team give up.

He pushed himself to his feet, "We must stand and be strong," he told them, "either we defeat the Nighlok or we will be defeated."

"Understood," Kevin nodded. Those had been the words his own father had told him growing up. He knew his responsibilities as a Samurai meant he couldn't give up. If he was still able to fight, he needed to keep fighting.

"Yeah, yeah," Mike nodded his head as he got up on all fours, "I know."

Finally, Emily moaned in pain and tried to push herself up, but unlike the others she couldn't. Her knee was still bruised and sore from when Mia accidentally hit her, her head was still cut and hurt from her symbol power, her elbow had been untreated and was throbbing in pain, and now she hurt everywhere else as a result.

Mia, who had fallen right next to Emily, crawled over to check up on her. Jayden stood behind the two girls.

"Get up, if you can," he demanded, his eyes falling on Mia. "Get up."

"I'm up," Mia was on her knees, looking up at Jayden as she placed her hand on Emily's back and leaned down to ask if she was okay. Jayden growled, grabbed Mia's shoulder, and ripped her away from Emily. He pushed her into the dirt.

"She'll get up on her own," he said. "Don't help her."

"Dude…"

"Leave her!" Jayden shouted to Mike. "We deserve better," Jayden looked back down at Emily, "if you don't get up now, you'll be packing your bags and heading home. Tell Serena to come ASAP and that I'm not impressed."

Jayden wasn't impressed, but Mia, Kevin and Mia were awestruck as Emily tried again to lift herself from the dirt. Even though she failed, her friends didn't see it that way.

Jayden scowled and stepped past her. He picked up his Spin Sword from the ground and was about to chase after the Nighlok when he felt someone grab his shoulder and spin him around. Next thing he knew, he felt a sharp pain in his stomach and he felt winded. He dropped his sword and clutched his stomach as he doubled over in pain. Mike glared at him, shaking his fist.

"That's for being an ass," Mike growled.

"Mike, you're out of line," Jayden said through clenched teeth. "I will not put innocent lives in danger. This is your final chance. Anyone who isn't ready to be a Samurai can leave, right now. Stand up if you're ready."

Again, Emily tried to push herself up but Mia gently held her down.

"Don't get up," the pink Ranger sat down next to her. "You did a good job. Don't hurt yourself."

Kevin nodded with Mia and knelt down next to Emily.

Mike glared hatefully at Jayden before he took a seat in the dirt. Jayden scoffed.

"I'll do this on my own, then," he turned and walked away from his team, rushing into battle. The four Samurai behind him looked across the battle field as he fought the Nighlok himself.

Suddenly, a woman raced into sight, shouting for her daughter.

"Hannah!"

"Mommy!"

A young girl, no older than six, poked her head out from under all the rubble. She stepped out of her hiding spot, revealing her tiny, beaten body. The four Samurai gasped and Jayden hurried over to the girl, shielding her as the Nighlok attacked. He drove the Nighlok away and then picked up the girl and carried her back to her mother.

"She could have died," Emily whispered. "I could have killed her."

"No, Em," Mike shook his head but Emily wasn't listening. Her eyes focused on Jayden as his strength in battle doubled while he protected the mother and daughter who were trying to get away safely.

"He needs a strong team," Emily said. "You guys go help him."

"No, Em, not after…"

"Protect the innocent. If we can't do that, we're useless," Emily groaned, letting her head fall as the pain hit her again. "You guys need to keep fighting."

"Not without you," Mia shook her head. She gently grabbed Emily and with Mike's help she lifted the yellow Ranger to her feet. "You're stronger than this, Emy."

She held Emily up and let the yellow Ranger lean on her for support as they all stood and watched Jayden continue to fight.

"Jayden's counting on us," Emily said to the others. "We need to be the best we can be if we're going to help him. He shouldn't have to settle for anything less."

"He's been cold," Kevin shook his head. "He basically called you useless!"

"You're not useless," Mike told Emily.

Emily sighed and watched as Jayden was kicked to the ground, "He's got our lives in his hands. It's not fair to ask him to worry about us and the world. That's too much from him. He's right, if we're not ready, we shouldn't be here."

"But…"

Emily pushed away from Mia, standing on her own. She swayed for a moment, but Mike steadied her with a hand on the small of her back. Emily pulled out her Samuraizer, morphing instantly.

"Emily…" Mia called. Emily looked over her shoulder.

"What?"

"We are sorry."

Emily looked down to where she had been lying only moment ago. Her teammates had chosen to stand by her instead of abandoning her. They did seem to truly care for her.

"Did you tell them?" Emily asked, locking eyes with Mia through her visor.

"Tell them what?"

"That you knew," Emily stated. "That note wasn't news to you."

"You knew?" Mike gasped. Mia looked at Emily who nodded. She let out a deep breath.

"Emily told me right before she ran off. She made me promise not to tell you guys."

"We'll talk when we get home," Kevin stepped forward, his Samuraizer in hand. "Let's help Jayden with that Nighlok."


	15. Teamwork

With the team working together, the Nighlok was defeated. There had been one more mishap with assembling them Megazord (apparently the Zords were _not_ supposed to be stacked one on top of the other), but aside from that, when the Rangers worked as a team and supported each other, the Nighlok were no problem.

The Nighlok was gone, but the Rangers were still at the scene of the battle. They had powered down and were tending to their injuries, certain that it would be a while before anyone in the city felt safe to dig through all the rubble and begin cleaning the street.

Jayden walked up to this team. He had been fighting the Nighlok for so long he was used to the pain after the battles. No matter how much of a beating he took, he could always bounce back quickly. Mia, Kevin, Mike, and Emily were on the ground, exhausted, so he glared down at them.

"We need to talk about what happened," he said. "I'm the red Ranger. I'm the leader. When I tell you guys to stand up, you stand up."

"Dude, I'm not listening to a word you say when you're being such a douche," Mike shook his head and got to his feet. He hated being spoken down to. He hated when people thought he wasn't doing his best and putting all his effort into a job, especially when he was.

Kevin was up on his feet as well, standing behind Mike. He hated going against his Samurai leader, but he felt he had to. Mia was on the ground with Emily, double and even triple-checking all her injuries.

"You were great today," Mia assured her as the boys yelled at each other. "I'm really impressed."

Emily looked at Mia and then up at the boys who were now defending her against Jayden, all while never telling Jayden her secret. Even Mia looked like she wasn't about to spill the beans on Serena's illness, and unless they were lying, she hadn't even told the boys she knew when they found the note. She had been faithful to Emily.

"You're not getting Serena!" Mike shouted to Jayden while Kevin had to hold him back. "Emily's our yellow Ranger and she's amazing. We're lucky to have her."

A smile appeared on Emily's lips as Mike said this and she looked at Mia. The pink Ranger nodded her head.

"Your sister would be proud," she reached out to help Emily up to her feet, "C'mon, Emy, I'll…"

Mia was taken by surprise when Emily didn't just accept the help, but threw herself into her arms. Emily hugged the pink Ranger tightly, whispering an apology for getting angry. Mia hugged her back and shook her head.

"You don't have to apologize," she chuckled. "We're the ones who should apologize."

Mike, Jayden and Kevin looked down as Emily hugged Mia. Mike and Kevin smiled to each other, taking this as a sign that things were slowly coming together again, but Jayden was unmoved. He stepped forward and looked down at Emily.

"I want answers," he demanded as the girls pulled away from each other. Emily looked up.

"About Serena?"

"Why you and not her?" Jayden asked. "Unless I'm wrong, she's a more experienced Samurai than you are. That's what we need on this team."

"I can fight," Emily lowered her voice and looked down. "Serena's really, really good, and she would be here if she could, but…"

"Why isn't she here?"

"She's sick," Emily whispered.

"The common cold is not a good enough reason to skip out on your responsibilities."

"She's been sick for almost eight years now," Emily explained. She didn't see it because she was looking at the dirt, but Jayden's stance relaxed and his expression softened.

"It's bad, then?"

Emily nodded her head but didn't say anything. She had already talked about this way too much in the day. She just wanted to go home and forget about everything.

Jayden looked around at the others, "You knew?"

"She told us," Kevin nodded his head.

"And before you say anything about it," Mike glared at Jayden, "Emily's going to be just as good, if not better than Serena, I know it. We just have to help each other out."

He reached down and with Mia's help he got Emily up to her feet.

To say Jayden felt like the dirt under his feet would be an understatement. All this time he had gone on and on, sometimes even to the others, about how he was waiting for Serena to turn up and that Emily's arrival was just some joke, when in reality, it was anything but. Judging by Emily's tone, Jayden could assume that Serena's illness was really, really bad, and it was enough for the Earth Samurai family to send a sixteen year old girl into battle in her place. Jayden didn't like the idea, but he realised in this moment that it didn't matter whether he liked it or not. It was a reality that one of his teammates was dealing with. She had so much to worry about, it was no wonder she couldn't focus.

And then she made him feel worse when she looked him in the eye and apologized to him.

"I'm sorry, Jayden. I know I let you down. I'll do better next time, I promise."

Jayden shook his head, "You did fine, kid. You did the best you could, that's all I should be asking for."

"But…"

"Emily, you guys have given up everything for me already. I've been tough on you but that's because I don't want to see you or anyone else in this city, getting hurt. These Nighloks are serious. They are going to do everything they can to kill you and before you decide to do this, you need to realise that you might not come out of this alive. The Nighlok could kill you, and if you're not careful they could go after your family and hurt or even kill them."

"I know," Emily nodded. "Serena told me all that already. I'm ready for this, Jayden."

"We all are, dude," Mike added.

"This could take years," Jayden told his team. "You might not see your family for years."

Emily looked down sadly, "I know."

Kevin smiled at Emily, "Hey, don't worry about her," he said, "We're going to defeat these Nighlok and you'll be back home before you know it. And if Serena's half the fighter you are, she's going to be right there waiting for you."

Sirens began to blare in the background and the Rangers took this as a sign that people were going to start investigating the attack and they needed to scram.

"Mentor will look at all of you when we get home," Jayden promised. "You'll feel good as new again."

-Samurai-

"I think the bruises hurt more than actually being punched," Mike commented, sitting on his stool with an ice pack over his shoulder and a few bandages covering his cuts and scrapes from the battle. He looked no different from the other Rangers, who were all a bit roughed up from their mission, but instead of letting his body recover he continued to poke the giant bruise that had been left on his arm.

"It hurts a lot less when you stop touching it," Kevin rolled his eyes and ripped Mike's hand away, stopping the green Ranger from poking. Mike pulled his arm back and glared.

"My arm, I'll do what I want."

"You should let it heal on its own," Kevin insisted, taking Mike's hand again. The boys tugged and pulled, fighting for no obvious reason except that they seemed to want to fight. Mia turned her gaze to Emily and rolled her eyes.

"You are so my favourite," she said. Emily smiled softly and looked to her hands, which were resting in her lap.

Jayden and Mentor walked into the room after stepping out for a private conversation. They took their seats and Mentor looked around at the team.

"A lot has happened," he said, "but before we discuss that, I will ask again: are you okay?"

"Dude, I'll poke it if I want to poke it," Mike snapped at Kevin before the room filled with silence. The two arguing boys noticed the stares from the others in the room and kept their hands to themselves.

"Sorry," they apologized.

"We're fine, Mentor," Mia assured the older man. He nodded his head.

"Good. Now, I thought it would be best if we got to know each other properly. We well tell each other everything we want to be made public. The rest will be revealed as friendships grow. Is that a deal?"

"Deal," the team all agreed.

"Good. I'll start. I was the Samurai Mentor to your parents' team, which means this isn't my first time fighting the Nighlok. I know what I am doing and I ask that you trust my decisions, but I also ask that you do think for yourselves. Your lives are the ones that are in the most danger, and I will never ask you to do anything you don't feel comfortable doing."

"Nothing personal?" Mike asked. "No deep dark secret? You didn't rob a convenience store when you were twelve?"

"I have raised Jayden since he was a boy, training him to be the red Ranger. I have not had much time for felonies, Mike."

"Surely you had a childhood," Mike rolled his eyes. "Look, all you guys need to know about me is that I am who I am and no one, not even Mr. Samurai in Blue over there, is going to get me to change."

"In other words, you're going to stay up late playing video game, you'll oversleep and miss training, and you'll eat us out of house and home before the end of the week?" Kevin asked.

Mike nodded his head, "I'm a teenage boy," he looked around the room at the other boys, "Apparently, I'm the only normal one here. Seriously, did any of you have a childhood?"

"I guess I had a little more freedom growing up," Mia said. "I went to school, did my homework, played with friends; all that fun stuff that comes with being a kid, as well as my Samurai training."

"See, this is why she doesn't piss me off," Mike flicked his thumb at Mia as he spoke to Kevin, "She knows it's not all about work, work, work."

"Balance is key," Mentor cut in.

"My grandmother taught me that early on," Mia nodded. She looked around the room, "she, uh… had a big part in my training. She was the pink Ranger before my mother."

"I'm completed dedicated to being a Samurai," Kevin held his head high, "but if I weren't here, I would be in the Olympics. Whenever I wasn't training to be a Samurai, I was swimming."

"So still training?" Mike asked. "When aren't you training?"

"Never," Kevin looked to Mike seriously. The green Ranger had a slightly freaked out look on his face before he turned and looked to Emily.

"I've heard him talk in his sleep a few times," he whispered to the pink Ranger, "he dreams about training too."

Emily giggled and looked at Kevin. The blue Ranger rolled his eyes.

"It seems to be working, though," he said, "Who's better than whom with a sword?"

"Who kicked your ass this morning in hand to hand combat?" Mike reminded.

Jayden, ignoring the two boys, looked over at Emily. He still felt terrible for the way he treated her. He knew he had been cold and harsh, but he hadn't meant to be. He just couldn't imagine himself asking a child to help him fight his battles. He didn't even want to ask Kevin, Mike or Mia to fight alongside him. He couldn't risk anyone getting hurt. All it took was one; simple mistake and they could all be dead before they reached their mid-twenties, or even their twenties.

"For what it's worth, Emily," he said, "you do make a great yellow Ranger. I'm sorry I didn't see it before."

"It's okay," Emily played with her hands, "I know you were expecting Serena. It must have been a disappointment. It's not your fault."

"It's not that it was a disappointment," Jayden shook his head, "It was a surprise, that's all. I should have adapted faster. I'm really sorry for the things I said and the way I treated you. It really wasn't right."

Jayden turned to the others, "Look, it's like what Mentor said: I've been doing this for a while, so I know what I'm doing. I need you guys to trust me, even when things seem confusing, but you can't be afraid to question any decision that I make that leaves you feeling scared, threatened or uncomfortable. I would never ask you to do anything that I wouldn't do myself and I would never put you in a situation where you don't feel safe."

"We're a team," Mia smiled, "if we work together, the Nighlok can't stop us."

The Rangers exchanged looks and smiles and with that the meeting was ended. Mentor got up and walked out to his room to work. Jayden left for the dojo to train and Mia and Kevin went to the kitchen where Mia promised she would show Kevin how to make the _delicious_ cookies her grandmother would always make with her after a long training session.

Mike looked across the room at Emily. He could feel his handheld video game in his pocket and part of him wanted to play given he had a little free time. The other part of him wanted to be with Emily.

"You know, what you're doing for your sister, it's pretty cool," he smiled to her. "I mean, the fact that she's sick really, really sucks, but you're amazing for this."

"It's nothing," Emily shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not really good at anything else. I didn't do well in school and I didn't join clubs or play sports. Being a Samurai and playing the flute are the only two things I'm good at."

"I seriously doubt that," Mike shook his head. "You're amazing, Em."

Emily blushed and had to look away, hoping he wouldn't notice, "You're pretty amazing yourself. You don't train as much as Kevin, Mia or Jayden and you're still really good."

"Thanks…"

"And, you're good with video games," Emily pointed to his pocket and Mike noticed his game was sticking out. He grabbed it and held it out for her.

"Do you want to play?" he asked her, "Or, better yet, I can set up my game console to the TV and we can both play."

"You'll have to teach me."

"Of course," Mike nodded. "Why don't you come help me find it?"

"Do you have something other than killing games?" Emily hopped out of her seat and bounced down the hallway as she followed Mike to his room.

"I'll find something a little more your style," Mike promised with a laugh. "Less blood and more…"

"Cute?"

"I don't think I have cute. I have Mario."

"Who?"

Mike turned around and stared at the young Samurai, "You don't know Mario?" Emily shook her head. He grabbed her arm and pulled her to his room, "You've been missing out!"

-Samurai-

Later that night, Jayden was getting himself ready for bed when he heard a knock on his door. Mentor Ji walked in without waiting for permission. Jayden sighed and turned to the older man.

"I'm guessing you have something to say."

"You know now," Mentor nodded. "You understand why Serena couldn't come."

"Yeah, Mentor, I get it," Jayden pulled down the blankets on his bed and then stopped and turned to Mentor, "You knew, didn't you?"

"Emily told me," Mentor said. "And if you had given her the chance, I'm sure she would have told you."

Mentor walked over to Jayden's desk and pulled out the chair. He sat down and looked to his red Ranger.

"This is a lot of pressure on you," he said. "I understand the stress you are under. But what you did in battle today… that's unacceptable."

"I know, Mentor."

"You did not want a team. You do not want anyone putting themselves in danger, but you need them. You need them more than they need you. I never want you to leave one of your teammates behind."

"It was stupid, I know."

"It was careless, and if your father were here he would have been so disappointed in the way you led your team today."

Jayden lowered his head, tears stung at his eyes. Mentor was being harsh and rather cruel, but Jayden knew he was right and he knew he deserved this. He was ashamed by what he had done. He never should have doubted his team, especially not in the middle of a battle.

"I understand if it takes time for you to get used to the idea of asking four other people to put themselves in danger for you. I understand if you find it difficult to build a relationship with them because you are scared to lose more people you care for. But a relationship will form in time, you cannot stop it. It's up to you to decide whether or not that relationship is a good one."

"If they knew…"

"When the time is right, Jayden," Mentor shook his head. "For now, you must make the effort to bond with them. There is nothing stronger than a team united."

Jayden nodded slowly and looked to the ground, "They were all pretty strong when they stuck up for Emily. If they had used that energy against the Nighlok instead of me, we would have won a lot faster; there would have been less destruction…"

"As leader, it is crucial that you understand your team. You must know their strengths, their weaknesses and you must have their complete trust. How do you expect to do that if you don't interact with them in the slightest? Today was just a taste of what could happen if you don't smarten up. Next time, Emily might not stand up for you. She might not convince the others that they need to fight."

"If she hadn't of today I could have lost," Jayden sighed. "That Nighlok was tough, you were right about needing a team."

"You cannot do it alone."

"I want to be a good leader," Jayden looked up at Mentor, "I want to do well. I want to lead this team to victory, destroy Master Xandred for good and I want to make my father proud."

"Train with them tomorrow morning," Mentor got up from the chair and started making his way out. "Get involved in their lives."

Jayden nodded his head, "Thanks, Ji. I'll do my best."

_The End._


End file.
